A "Clean Heart" Summit?

 

¹Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin...

 ¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.

 

Psalm 51 NRSV

We are approaching the beginning of Lent and once again on Ash Wednesday we will hear the words of Psalm 51 which speaks of contrition and renewal and hopefully take them to heart. The "back story" of the psalm is that the arrogant King David has been humbled and recognizes his sinfulness before God.
Perhaps those words should be read tomorrow as a four-day summit will get underway in Rome with 200  senior bishops of the Catholic church. They will be discussing the grim reality of sexual abuse perpetrated against children and vulnerable adults for God know how long. While this is supposed to be a positive step, I am dubious.

For one thing, it has emerged after Pope Francis apologized for aggressively defending clerics in Chile who have now been exposed as abusers while dismissing the claims of victims. While he eventually expressed contrition for his response, it was one more indication that the RC church closes ranks around its clergy despite the evidence of criminal activity.

Another baffling reality of this summit is that it is supposed to educate bishops about the church's policies for addressing abuse. How can it possibly be that after decades of revelations anyone in authority could not know what the church expects? How seriously has this been addressed if education is still needed? Recently we've discovered that there have been cover-ups of the sexual abuse of nuns by priests around the world and that the church has secret guidelines for how to address the fathering of children by priests (there are probably tens of thousands.)

Finally, this summit will not include women who have been subjected to abuse, at least not directly, and this is appalling. Once again this will be a gathering of aging men in positions of hierarchical authority, many of whom may have been aware or should have been aware of what was happening in their areas of authority. One of the survivors wonders what could possibly be said during this carefully managed gathering that hasn't already been identified.

If my response seems harsh, I will note that I have worked collegially with priests in different settings through the years and appreciate the gifts they bring as servants of Christ. I have no doubt that the vast majority of Roman Catholic clerics are moral people and committed Christians. Still, the scope of this corruption and the slow response to it reminds us once again that the current structure of the church may be irredeemable. One Roman Catholic theologian suggests that this is the greatest challenge to the church since the Protestant Reformation.

Perhaps we all need to pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit which will lead to profound repentance and create clean hearts.

Did you catch my Groundling blog from yesterday about skiing and the Sabbath?
https://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2019/02/skiing-sabbath-sunlight.html