Aftershocks: what Catholics are saying on The Morning After

I hate the Church so much right now.

From a priest:

Woe to the first person that suggests that ‘we’ need to do penance for the failures of the hierarchy. THEY need to do penance. WE priests have been bearing the stigma of their misdeeds for too long already.

From a deacon in Pennsylvania:

My wife and I are absolutely sickened and saddened by what has been unfolding in the Erie Diocese. The evil actions of the individuals outlined in the Grand Jury report disgust and anger us. Their actions mar all church leaders, lay and clergy, causing the people in the pew to distrust us and even leave the Church.

Our hearts and prayers are extended to those who have suffered the abuse and to their families. Our entire Church is in a state of crisis. We pray that God will rain down His mercy and grant wisdom, council, and strength to those of us in ministry who are able to help the Church during this long healing process.

From writer, wife and mother Simcha Fisher:

Since the first news stories came out, I’ve had my head in my hands. There is nothing else to do. I read about a boy who was so violently raped by a priest, his spine was injured. The victim’s pain was treated with opioids, he became addicted and then overdosed, and now he is dead. I don’t know if the priest is also dead. I don’t even know what to pray for. Mercy on us all.

Mercy on our priests, who must be feeling this atrocity so keenly.

To you parish priests: please, you must speak to your flock about what is happening. Don’t let another Mass go by without saying something. I am begging you. Some of the parishioners somehow don’t know what is going on, and they must know. And many of us have been following the news with dread, and we must know that you understand how nearly unbearable this is. We can’t stand the silence anymore.

From a priest:

I’ve given my whole life to serving Christ in His Church. Since beginning the seminary in 1994, every year has brought fresh revelations of the darkest corruption along with criminal moral perversion coupled to unbelievable levels of incompetence. Then I read the papers or catch the evening news and I see Cardinals and bishops that I know for a fact are lying with impunity deploying weasel words and fake emotions.

Until I went to the seminary I was not aware of knowing a single criminal sex abuser. Since then, apparently, I’ve rubbed elbows with dozens, some being high-ranking prelates. And those are just the ones whose names have made it into reports and news stories.

Last night I discovered that the Archdiocese of Washington, DC appears to have commissioned some PR help and created a website meant to support and/or protect the prelate’s reputation.

You can find it here, at The Wuerl Record.

This is the sort of action we usually see being taken by a Chairman of the Board, or a CEO, or a politician, and that’s very telling; it exposes a mindset that is geared toward management and administration, with a less-than-optimal pastoral sensibility on display. It’s all too much of the world.

I’m being kind, okay? Here’s the truth: Too many of our bishops are men who have not heard someone talk straight to them in decades. They’re beyond insulated — they never hear anyone say “no” to them, or give them a hard time. You need a little friction in life to keep you grounded — without it you just become slick, and start to spin.

And she notes this:

In one part of the grievous Grand Jury Report, Cardinal Wuerl is reported to have have presided over the funeral of an abusive priest — one member of a horrific and perverse group who gave gold crosses to altar boys meant to signal that the boys “were optimal targets for further victimization”. At the Mass Wuerl “stated, among other things, that ‘a priest is a priest. Once he is ordained, he is a priest forever.’”

Well, if so, then let our bishops and cardinals act like priests, not elite executives. It’s very clear that too many bishops and cardinals have shown themselves to be untrustworthy overseers; they need to learn how to be priests again, and there is no better way to do that than to toss them out of the cushy offices, greatly reduce the number of personal assistants, end the entourage, discourage the gold cuff links and the bespoke shirts and the limos. Send them forth with a pair of good shoes and a working phone, into the mission territory of their parishes.

Let each bishop acquire a diocesan administrative team of trustworthy, capable professional lay people who have no disordered attachment to ideas of protectionism or clericalism. That removes the prelate from management concerns and permits him to become reacquainted with the real and practical ministry for which he was ordained and should be at the very core of his priesthood.

Read it all.

And pray for our church, her people, and her priests.