Care for the Little Ones

 

 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 
“Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  
He called a child, whom he put among them,  
 and said, “Truly I tell you, 
unless you change and become like children, 
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
  Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

  “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, 
it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck
 and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. 
  Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks!
  Matthew 18 (NRSV)


Earlier in the week I criticized Pope Francis for his silence about a report from a Grand Jury in Pennsylvania which addressed the sickening systemic abuse of children by priests over decades. Since my blog the pope has responded bluntly and openly. I include some of his words here and will say that they express contrition and shame.

I also wonder if this is simply too little, too late. These were 300 priests in one state who may have abused thousands of children. How many are there worldwide? And how will the Roman Catholic church change its hierarchical and secretive structure to ensure that this has come to an end? It's not just the sexual abuse of children. It's the shaming and subjugation of women over the years and the insistence that power must rest with a select group of men. 

This is not the intention for the body of Christ, and while Pope Francis knows this, it remains to be seen whether change will occur.

Please read this and feel free to offer your thoughts.

"If one member suffers, all suffer together with it" (1 Cor 12:26)...In recent days, a report was made public which detailed the experiences of at least a thousand survivors, victims of sexual abuse, the abuse of power and of conscience at the hands of priests over a period of approximately seventy years. Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims. 

We have realized that these wounds never disappear and that they require us forcefully to condemn these atrocities and join forces in uprooting this culture of death; these wounds never go away. The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced. But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence it, or sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its gravity by falling into complicity. The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side he stands. 

Mary's song is not mistaken and continues quietly to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise he made to our fathers: "he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty" (Lk 1:51-53). We feel shame when we realize that our style of life has denied, and continues to deny, the words we recite. 

With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives. We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them. I make my own the words of the then Cardinal Ratzinger when, during the Way of the Cross composed for Good Friday 2005, he identified with the cry of pain of so many victims and exclaimed: "How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to [Christ]! How much pride, how much self-complacency! Christ's betrayal by his disciples, their unworthy reception of his body and blood, is certainly the greatest suffering endured by the Redeemer; it pierces his heart. We can only call to him from the depths of our hearts: Kyrie eleison -- Lord, save us!