---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Allwyn Fernandes <allwyn.fernan
...@gmail.com>
Date: 15 August 2011 08:44
Subject: Faithful expect bishops to tell the whole truth: Just Anne Burke
To: A communicating Indian Church <communicating-church@googlegroups.com>
But are our bishops upto it after decades of lying to the people and
themselves?
Faithful expect bishops to tell the whole truth
The Irish Times - Saturday, August 13, 2011
ANNE BURKE*
*Justice Anne Burke is a supreme court judge in the US state of Illinois.
With Eunice Kennedy she founded the Special Olympics. She served as
chairwoman of the US Catholic Bishops’ Conference National Review Board, the
US equivalent of the Irish Catholic bishops’ National Board for Safeguarding
Children
Child sex scandals here and in the US make me wonder can bishops ever be
trusted
JUST WHEN it appeared that the fallout over the abuse scandal in the US
could not get any worse, the other shoe dropped in Philadelphia last
February. A large number of accused clerics had never been removed from
active ministry by either the past or then archbishop of Philadelphia,
Cardinal Francis Rigali, who resigned last month.
After years of investigation, inspection and research, it turns out that the
cover-ups have been further institutionalised. Among the indicted is a
monsignor who is accused of turning a blind eye to things in his chancery
office. Of course, to blame a clerical official for such deviousness without
accusing his archbishop presents a mistaken analysis of how the church
works.
A rite of repentance staged at Philadelphia’s cathedral last March offered a
curious response to how local Catholics felt. At a sanctuary packed with
auxiliary bishops and the cardinal, a small handful of the faithful turned
out to hear them say how sorry they were. Perhaps, like papal letters, *people
want more than scripted apologies *for errors of judgment that have been
institutionalised in American Catholicism.
Of course, the bishops hold up the charter for the protection of children
and young adults that they put into motion back in 2002. I do not denigrate
that historic step. It did a lot to make children safer in our Catholic
institutions. And it did permit us the opportunity to examine what the
causes and effects of the scandal were.
But the discovery by the grand jury last February of more than 30 accused
clerics in Philadelphia still in active ministry raises new fears. For me
these are much more than institutional nightmares.
It makes me wonder what kind of people we are dealing with when we engage
the bishops. How is it that their words say one thing and their secret
intentions say another? *Are they ever to be trusted?*
I can remember the sometimes vicious response some members of the hierarchy
gave to the national review board, set up by the US Catholic bishops when we
were investigating the handling of allegations of clerical child sex abuse
by church authorities some years ago. *Former cardinal Egan of New York
actually wanted to ban us from his fiefdom, as if we were coming from some
rival kingdom*.
In light of Philadelphia, where Cardinal Rigali has been a long-time Roman
oligarch who, I am told, was spending many days each month in Rome still
serving on various congregations, all the events of our investigation and
audit get coloured with a new layer of meaning – little has changed.
Thomas Jefferson put it best: *“Honesty is the first chapter of the book of
wisdom.”* I would be curious now as to how US cardinals view the recent
cardinal of Philadelphia’s behaviour? And what of the behaviour of his
predecessor, cardinal Bevilacqua?
I travelled on St Patrick’s feast day this year to Dublin for a law
conference and was refreshed by the lyrical camaraderie that is such a part
of Irish life. The journey was particularly energising and fulfilling, but
there also was an element of sadness to the visit. It was easy to spot the
first morning when I made my way to daily Mass. *Since it was Lent, I
expected an enlarged congregation but found the opposite*.
Recent Irish scandals and the poor response from the Holy See, my hosts told
me, seemed to have sealed the fate of Catholicism in Ireland for some time
to come.
All the usual elements were there thanks to the Irish bishops – cover-up,
lying, bullying, threats, the hiding of evidence, the sealing of witness
testimony and most of all the willingness to let the guilty clergy “get
away” with the crime.
During the most abject period of Irish history, when the English prohibited
the practice of our faith, our Irish ancestors would walk for miles in the
dark and rain to find a remote field in which a brave secret priest would
celebrate Mass at the risk of his life for people desperate for the
nourishment of the sacraments.
The faithful have not been as absent from the celebration of sacraments as
they are today since Irish religious emancipation in 1829. What is really
sad is that the Vatican’s understanding of what people really need is so
totally off the mark.
Perhaps if the Pope took himself to O’Connell Street in Dublin he might have
achieved a semblance of effective healing. But a papal letter, no matter how
well intentioned, is not the stuff that brings healing. People want their
trust restored. No papal letter, even a long one, will ever be able to do
that.
I believe that truthfulness has been a virtue in trouble for a long time in
the Catholic Church. Who could ever see this coming? Not me. I was an
obedient Catholic schoolgirl, a true believer. It is not easy for us to
unlearn being Catholic. I, for one, don’t want to.
But I expect truthfulness at all costs from our leadership. If that cannot
be supplied then we must go back to the drawing board. Do we not have the
right to truthfulness? Perhaps a council on truthfulness might help to
expand the importance of this critical virtue. Perhaps it could be a meeting
for both bishops and faithful in which they could share ideas and dreams for
the church.
I believe that when the truth flourishes we will see the return of those who
have walked away. ###
--
Allwyn Fernandes
Communications Professional
'Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind do not matter,
and those who matter don’t mind'
