Today is 9/11. In our day it is a moment seared in our memories as we recall the events of September 11, 2001. Our priests were on retreat that week, as we are this week. The word came and we found a tv and were glued to it, not believing what was transpiring in New York, Washington, and very near us in Shanksville. We stopped to offer Mass with the staff of our retreat center and to pray as we had seldom prayed before.
The attack on 9/11 was for so many of us a crisis of faith and trust in our security. It was a time of unbelievable sorrow and pain for countless thousands and heart-wrenching pain for the rest of us. Anger filled our hearts and our emotions were running on empty. It was the punch in the gut that doubled us over. What would tomorrow bring?
For an earlier generation, December 7, 1941, was such a day. As FDR called it, the attack on Pearl Harbor was a day that will live in infamy. The distance from Hawaii to us mattered little as we struggled with the events of that day and our subsequent entry in to WWII.
In both of those moments of crisis we roused the best of our spirits and courage as a nation, and we took a knee in prayer to the Lord for his love and strength, his compassion and mercy, and for help in ways that we could not even put into words. And we survived … and we regrouped … and we rebuilt and hopefully grew stronger. And, as is so important, we remember. When we forget, we falter and fall.
As a Catholic, as a priest, as a member of the Church, I see August 14th's Grand Jury Report publication as our spiritual 9/11. Let me assure you that I am not comparing this crisis within the Church to those other two devastating moments, but there are similarities.
The victims who suffered abuse at the hands of abuser priests have also died - in countless ways. They have struggled and suffered with betrayal and self worth. Memories are hard to heal, and healing can be illusive. Add to that the mistakes of the Church in handling many of these situations, and Faith itself is often shaken. They need our love and support, and most especially our desire for forgiveness from them for the failures of the Church. We are that Church.
The Church suffers from the attacks from both within and from without - from those hostile to religious faith and the institutional Church. The suffering from within involves shame and failure to stand vigilant in preserving the dignity of every child of God. Not only are the actions of the Church leadership called into question (which they rightly should be) but there is a calling of their motives into question - as if this were a planned, coordinated, sinister plot to not care about the victims. I find this to not be the case, at least in my experience.
As I have said before, the vast majority of our priests are faith-filled, faithful, loving servants of the Lord, whose love for those entrusted to them is deep and abiding. We suffer when the priesthood is described as being vastly predatory and we are labeled by association. And to those who have been falsely accused in the past or whose accusations have not been substantiated, there is a feeling of abandonment. We used to say that you were innocent until proven guilty. That is a thing of the past.
And as I said in my last post, the Lord requires that we pray for our persecutors, that we love our enemies, that we forgive as the Lord has forgiven us. This is the most difficult, most challenging aspect of being loved by Christ. He died for us, but he died for all of us - sinners and saints alike. And he promised to be our strength as we pray for those who have sinned against us. Only then can we begin to heal, can we begin to rebuild, can we begin to reflect the glory that is ours as Children of God - redeemed and sanctified in the Blood of the Lamb.
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