The excuse that respect be given to some priests by virtue of their advanced years and hierarchical position is unacceptable. This argument states that many of the criminal offenders are old, some no longer alive, and that we should not hurt them or their reputations by taking away their priesthood in old age. We can feel sad for those who, when they were younger  committed offences that are now being brought out to the open. But my heart bleeds for many of the victims who have lived with the misplaced shame – we had that yesterday - misplaced shame and guilt of repeated violations for years. In some of these areas the offenders did not even see these victims as persons but as objects.

So, let us not hide such events anymore because of the fear of making mistakes. Too often we want to keep silent until the storm has passed! This storm will not pass. Our credibility as a Church is at stake. I think Jesus told us, gives us a very strong statement: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe [in me] to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” Mark 9:42. So, my dear brothers and sisters, we must face this issue and seek healing for the victims of abuse. The normal process for clergy - in the past and still in the present in some areas – was and is to give support to ‘one of us’, to avoid exposing a scandal and bringing discredit to the church. I told my group yesterday. I used to use three “s”: “secrecy”; “silence”; and the last one is “solidarity” for men, and support for one of us. Women is the same, but the third one is different, you can ask me later… We must face this issue and seek healing for the victims of abuse. The normal process, as I said, is the support for men, but we find a way together. All offenders, I want to say, regardless of their clerical status, found guilty should be given the same penalty for the abuse of minors.

I think of all the atrocities we have committed as members of the church: I am saying “we”, not “they”: “we”. The Constitutions of my own congregation reminds me: In Christ we unite ourselves to the whole of humanity, especially to the poor and suffering. We accept our share of responsibility for the sin of the world and so live that his love may prevail. (SHCJ Constitutions #6). I think all of us must acknowledge that our mediocrity, hypocrisy and complacency have brought us to this disgraceful and scandalous place that we find ourselves as a church.

Is it possible for us to move from fear of scandal to truth? How do we remove the masks that hide our sinful neglect? What policies, programs and procedures will bring us to a new, revitalized starting point characterized by a transparency that lights up the world with God’s hope for us in building the Reign of God?

oggi «siamo interpellati come Popolo di Dio a farci carico del dolore dei nostri fratelli feriti nella carne e nello spirito. Se in passato l’omissione ha potuto diventare una forma di risposta, oggi vogliamo che la solidarietà, intesa nel suo significato più profondo ed esigente, diventi il nostro modo di fare la storia presente e futura».

The final orienting principle essential to effective structures of accountability for clergy sexual abuse is the call to accompaniment. If the Church is truly to embrace victim/survivors of clerical abuse in her arms as a loving mother, then every structure of accountability must include outreach and accompaniment that is truly compassionate. Accompaniment entails genuinely attempting to understand the experience and spiritual journey of the other. Thus, the structures of reporting, investigation and the evaluation of claims of abuse must always be designed and evaluated with an understanding of what survivors undergo as they approach the Church and seek justice. Each instance of a survivor approaching the Church, whether he or she is seeking solace or justice, retribution or peace, is an invitation for the Church to genuinely be Pietà, marked with tenderness and empathy. Such structures of accountability must also be just and sure, producing sanctions to protect the vulnerable when the accused is guilty, and declarations of innocence when the accused is blameless. The call of the Church to accompany victims demands a mindset that categorically rejects cover-ups or the counsel to distance ourselves from survivors of abuse for legal reasons or out of a fear of scandal which blocks true accompaniment with those who have been victimized. It also demands that we erect structures and legal provisions that manifestly enshrine the duty to protect the young and the vulnerable as their first and overarching principle. Perhaps most importantly, the call to accompaniment demands that bishops and religious superiors reject a clerical worldview that sees charges of clergy sexual abuse cast against a backdrop of status and immunities for those in the clerical state. Authentic Christ-like accompaniment sees all as equal in the Lord, and structures rooted in accompaniment make all feel and appear equal in the Lord.

The third orientation for our work of reform and renewal was noted by Cardinal Gracias this morning — the stance of sustained collegiality that is necessary for genuine accountability regarding clergy sexual abuse. I know that at times the issue of sexual abuse can leave each of us feeling isolated or defensive in understanding how we should move forward. It is precisely for this reason that our efforts toward structural and legal reform in the Church must be rooted in a profoundly collegial vision. We are gathered here in this historic moment because the Holy Father has powerfully crystallized the drive for reform in a way that positions the Church to meet its responsibilities in protecting the young and to exercise its role as Pietà in a world which knows all too tragically the reality of sexual abuse. An approach that is synodal and collegial is marked by the reciprocal exchange of mutual knowledge, in the Roman Curia, episcopal conferences and metropolitans, and among each of them for the purpose of discernment. Rather than operating in isolation, we need to communicate with one another in a spirit of trust, recognizing all the while that we are being faithful to the wishes of Christ who has united us as successors of the apostles in the gift of the same Spirit. This past year has taught us that the systematic failures in holding clerics of all rank responsible are due in large measure to flaws in the way we interact and communicate with each other in the college of bishops in union with the successor of Peter. But they also reveal in many cases an inadequate understanding and implementation of key theological realities such as the relationship between the pope and the bishops, bishops among themselves, bishops and religious superiors, bishops with their people and the role of bishops’ conferences.

The first orientation is a perpetual stance of radical listening to comprehend the deadening experience of those who have been sexually abused by clergy. This is how we are to understand the Holy Father’s request that we prepare for this meeting by entering personally into the experiences of survivors by visiting with them. The Church as a loving mother must continually open herself to the heartbreaking reality of children whose wounds will never heal. Such a stance of listening calls us to cast aside the institutional distance and relational blinders that insulate us from coming face to face with the raw destruction of the lives of children and vulnerable people that clergy sexual abuse brings. Our listening cannot be passive, waiting for those who have been abused to find a way to us. Rather, our listening must be active, searching out those who have been wounded, and seeking to minister to them. Our listening must be willing to accept challenge, and confrontation and yes, even condemnation for the Church’s past and present failures to keep safe the most precious of the Lord’s flock. Our listening must be vigilant, understanding that only by inquiry and perseverance and action in the face of signs of sexual abuse can we fulfill God’s mandate. Finally, our listening must bring with it the willingness to confront the past grave and callous errors of some bishops and religious superiors in addressing cases of clergy sexual abuse, and the discernment to understand how to establish just accountability for these massive failures.

With that in mind, I want to begin with a story. Sixty years ago, this past December, a fire raged through Our Lady of the Angels Catholic elementary school in Chicago, taking the lives of 92 children and three religious sisters. To mark that sad anniversary, I presided at a Memorial Mass, attended by many of the former students who survived the fire and family members of those who had died. One of the persons I greeted before the Mass was a ninety-five-year old mother of one of the children who died in the fire. She was an Italian immigrant, who told me in her native language, but also by the pitiful look in her tearful eyes, that the sting of her loss was still as sharp as the day her nine-year old daughter perished. She showed me the holy card with her daughter’s picture. She clutched it in her hand as something very precious. She had kept this santino for six decades since the day of her little girl’s funeral. This moving story of a grieving mother, a modern-day Pietà, who lost her child many years ago puts us in touch on a profoundly human level with the sacred bond a parent has with a child. I believe that this sacred space of family life must be the point of reference and where we find our motivation as we commit ourselves in these days to build a culture of accountability with proper structures to radically alter our approach to child safeguarding. Sadly, many of our people, not just those abused or parents of the abused, but the faithful at large are wondering if we the leaders of the Church fully understand this sacred bound, this reality, particularly when they see little care given to abused children, or even worse, when it is covered up to protect the abuser or the institution. They are asking themselves, “If church leaders could act with so little care in giving pastoral attention in such obvious cases of a child being sexually molested, does that not reveal how detached they are from us as parents who treasure our children as the light of our lives? Can we really expect our leaders to care about us and our children in the ordinary circumstances of life, if they responded so callously in cases that would alarm any reasonable person?” This is the source of the growing mistrust in our leadership, not to mention the outrage of our people. My point is simple. None of the structural elements we enact as a synodal Church, important as they are, can guide us forward faithfully in Christ unless we anchor all our deliberations in the piercing pain of those who have been abused and of the families who have suffered with them. The Church must become like the grieving mother, whom I encountered in Chicago; the Church must truly be Pietà, broken in suffering, consoling in enveloping love, constant in pointing to the divine tenderness of God amidst the pangs of desolation in those who have been crushed by clergy abuse.

I began with quoting from victims; I want to end with this as well. A moment of consolation was when I told one of the victims: “Please, don’t stop loving the Church”. The reply I got was consoling: “I cannot. I will also do all I can for the Church: it is my family”.

The first message, directed especially to victims, is a respectful outreach and an honest acknowledgement of their pain and hurt. Although this would seem to be obvious, it has not always been communicated. Ignoring or minimising what victims have experienced only exacerbates their pain and delays their healing. Within a collegial Church, we can summon each other to attentiveness and compassion that enable us to make this outreach and acknowledgement. As I said from my encounters, I’m convinced we don’t fully comprehend the pain that they go through. We should never really even minimize it. The second message must be an offer to heal. There are many paths to healing, from professional counselling to support groups of peers and other means as well. In a collegial Church, we can exercise our imagination and develop these various paths of healing which we can, in turn, communicate to those who are hurting. A third important message is to identify and implement measure to protect young and vulnerable people from future abuse: preventive measures. Again, it takes a collective wisdom and a shared imagination to develop the ways of protecting young people and avoiding the tragedy of abuse. That can happen in a collegial Church which assumes responsibility for the future and plans together for the future. A fourth and final message is directed to society at large. Our Holy Father has wisely and correctly said that abuse is a human problem. It is not, of course, limited to the Church. In fact, it is a pervasive and sad reality across all sectors of life. Out of this particularly challenging moment in the life of the Church, we—again in a collegial context—can draw on and develop resources which can be of great service to a larger world. The grace of this moment can actually be our ability to serve a great need in the world from our experience in the Church. In history the Church has often be in the forefront for the defence of values: defence of human rights, rights of migrants, rights of women, rights of the family, rights of the poor. Could the Church become a model and be in the forefront for protection of the rights of the child? And could this influence all of society?

For effective healing to happen, there must be clear, transparent, and consistent communication from a collegial Church to victims, members of the Church, and society at large. In a case like this there are so many who need healing: the victim first of all, and that should be our prime concern; so does the family, so does the community, so does the parish. But there is also the perpetrator, and his family, his parish, his presbiterium. The immensity of this hurt, the effects of it are so much! In that communication, the Church offers several messages.

Some of the victims we met said: “I have lost faith in the Church. I have lost faith in God”. The indirect damage of abuse often results from a failed or inadequate institutional response to the sexual abuse. Included in that kind of indirect and damaging response might be: failure to listen to victims or to take their claims seriously, not extending care and support to victims and their families, giving priority to protecting institutional concerns over and above the care of victims, failing to withdraw abusers from situations that would enable them to abuse other victims, and not offering programmes of formation and screening for those who work with children and vulnerable adults.

he sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults in the Church reveals a complex web of interconnected factors including, as causes: psychopathology, sinful moral decisions, social environments that enable abuse to happen, and often inadequate or plainly harmful institutional and pastoral responses, or a lack of response. The abuse perpetrated by clerics (bishops, priests, deacons) and others serving in the Church (e.g. teachers, catechists, coaches) results in incalculable damage that is both direct and indirect. More importantly, abuse inflicts damage on the survivors. This direct damage can be physical. Inevitably, it is psychological with all the long-term consequences of any serious emotional trauma related to a profound betrayal of trust. Very often, it is a form of direct spiritual damage that shakes faith and severely disrupts the spiritual journey of those who suffer abuse, sometimes spiralling them into despair.

The point is clear. No bishop may say to himself, “This problem of abuse in the Church does not concern me, because things are different in my part of the world.” This is just a problem for the Usa or Europe or Australia. This, brothers and sisters, is just not true. I dare say there are cases all over the world, also in Asia, also in Africa. But even if we are true, we are jointly responsible, all of us, in this Synod Hall this morning, are jointly responsible to tackle the problem of sexual abuse of minors by clerics all over the world. We, as a body, are called to examine ourselves. We need to acknowledge first of all the fact of sexual abuse, we need to acknowledge the inadequacy of preventive measures, we need to ask pardon for this. We need to commit ourselves resolutely to take steps that this will never happen in the Church again, that we have a Church that is free from the sexual abuse of minors. Is it possible? It should never be, because we in leadership roles did not do enough. We are each responsible for the whole church. We hold accountability and responsibility together. We extend our concern beyond our local Church to embrace all the churches with which we are in communion.

Although the experience of abuse seems dramatically present in certain parts of the world, it is not just a limited phenomenon. Indeed, the entire Church must take an honest look, undertake rigorous discernment, and then act decisively to prevent abuse from occurring in the future and to do whatever possible to foster healing for victims. This is our duty, this is our calling.

Two days back we met with a group of victims

En el contexto de esta cercanía al pueblo de Dios, hay que situar nuestro proceder para con las víctimas del abuso. Y nuestro primer deber es escucharlas. Uno de los pecados cometidos al inicio de la crisis fue precisamente no haber escuchado con apertura de corazón a aquellos que denunciaban haber sido abusados por clérigos. Escuchar a las víctimas empieza por no minimizar el daño causado y el dolor producido. En muchos casos se llegó a pensar que el único motivo que impulsaba a las denuncias era buscar compensaciones económicas. “Lo único que buscan es el dinero”, se solía repetir. No hay duda de que a veces se orquestan acusaciones. No hay duda tampoco de que en muchas ocasiones se ha tratado de reducir la reparación de las víctimas a una indemnización monetaria sin tener en cuenta el verdadero alcance de esa reparación. Y no hay duda de que también en muchas ocasiones, hemos cedido a la tentación de tratar de arreglar con dinero situaciones insostenibles para acallar el posible escándalo. Esta nefasta realidad no nos puede impedir, sin embargo, tomar conciencia de la responsabilidad seria y grave que nos corresponde en la reparación de las víctimas. El dinero no puede nunca reparar el daño causado, pero se hace necesario en muchos casos para que las víctimas puedan seguir los tratamientos psicoterapéuticos que necesitan y que generalmente son muy costosos, algunos no han logrado reponerse al daño causado y no son capaces de trabajar y necesitan del apoyo económico para sobrevivir y para algunos el reconocimiento pecuniario se hace parte de un reconocimiento del daño causado. Es claro que estamos obligados a ofrecerles todos los medios necesarios –espirituales, sicológicos, siquiátricos, sociales― para la recuperación exigida.

Another aspect of the stewardship of prevention is the selection and presentation of candidates for the mission of Bishop. Many demand that the process be more open to the input of lay people in the community. We Bishops and Religious Superiors have the sacred duty to help the Holy Father arrive at a proper discernment concerning possible candidates for leadership as Bishops. It is a grave sin against the integrity of the episcopal ministry to hide or underestimate facts that may indicate deficits in the lifestyle or spiritual fatherhood of priests subject to a pontifical investigation into their suitability for the office of Bishop.

A good steward will empower his community through information and formation. There are already instances of best practice in a number of countries where whole parish communities have been given specific training in prevention. This valid and positive experience needs to grow in accessibility and extension around the world. Another service to the community is the ready availability of user-friendly access to reporting mechanisms so that a culture of disclosure is not only promoted by words but also encouraged by deed. Protocols for safeguarding should be readily accessible in a clear and direct language. The faith community under our care should know that we mean business. They should come to know us as friends of their safety and that of their children and youth. We will engage them with candour and humility. We will protect them at all cost. We will lay down our lives for the flocks entrusted to us.

In a number of local churches review boards or safeguarding commissions have been established and this experience has proved to be beneficial. It is such a relief for us bishops when we are able to share our sorrow, our pain and frustration as we face the terrible effects of the misconduct of some of our priests. Expert advice brings light and comfort and helps us arrive at decisions that are based on scientific and professional competence. Tackling cases as they arise in a synodal or collegial setting will give the necessary energy to bishops to reach out in a pastoral way to the victims, the accused priests, the community of the faithful and indeed to society at large.

Yet, before we even raise the issue of asking the victims to forgive as part of their healing, we must clarify that we are not suggesting that they should just let it all go, excuse the abuse, just move on. No. Far from it. But we know that when victims come to a moment of forgiving others who have harmed them, a deeper healing takes place and the understandable resentments that build up in their hearts are reconciled. We know that forgiveness is one powerful and even scientifically supported pathway for eliminating pain, resentment and the human heart. We as the Church should continue to walk with those profoundly wounded by abuse, building trust, providing unconditional love, and repeatedly asking for forgiveness in the full recognition that we do not deserve that forgiveness in the order of justice but can only receive it when it is bestowed as gift and grace in the process of healing.

one concern that we must address is: Once justice is served, how do we help the victims to heal from the effects of the abuse? Justice is necessary but by itself does not heal the broken human heart. If we are to serve the victims and all those wounded by the crisis, we need to take seriously their wound of resentment and pain and the need for healing

I cannot believe until I touch the wounds, the suffering of the world – for all the painful wounds, all the misery of the world and of humankind are Christ´s wounds! I do not have the right to confess God unless I take seriously my neighbor´s pain. Faith that would like to close its eyes to people´s suffering is just an illusion.” Faith is born and reborn only from the wounds of the Crucified and Risen Christ seen and touched in the wounds of humankind. Only a wounded faith is credible (Halik). How can we profess faith in Christ when we close our eyes to all the wounds inflicted by abuse?

Notice how Jesus invites them again to look at his wounds. He even insists that Thomas put his finger into the wounds of his hands and to bring his hand into the wound of his side. Try to imagine how Thomas must have felt. But from seeing the wounds of the Risen Lord, he makes the supreme profession of faith in Jesus as Lord and God. Seeing and touching the wounds of Jesus are fundamental to the act and confession of faith.

The prodigal son in the Gospel loses everything - not only his inheritance, but also his social status, his good standing, his reputation. We should not be surprised if we suffer a similar fate, if people talk badly about us, if there is distrust toward us, if some threaten to withdraw their material support. We should not complain about this, but instead ask what we should do differently. No one can exempt themselves, nobody can say: but I have personally not done anything wrong. We are a brotherhood, we bear responsibility not only for ourselves, but also for every other member of our brotherhood, and for the brotherhood as a whole.

Dear brothers, dear sisters, The Gospel of the prodigal son is well known to us. We have often recounted it, and often preached about it. It is almost taken for granted in our congregations and communities, to address the sinners and to encourage them to repent. We perhaps already do this so routinely that we forget something important. We readily forget to apply this scripture to ourselves, to see ourselves as we are, namely as prodigal sons.

Just like the prodigal son in the Gospel, we have also demanded our inheritance, got it, and now we are busy squandering it. The current abuse crisis is an expression of this. The Lord has entrusted us with the management of the goods of salvation, he trusts that we will fulfil his mission, proclaim the Good News, and help to establish the kingdom of God. But what do we do? Do we do justice to what is entrusted to us? We will not be able to answer this question with a sincere yes, beyond all doubts. Too often we have kept quiet, looked the other way, avoided conflicts - we were too smug to confront ourselves with the dark sides of our Church. We have thereby squandered the trust placed in us - especially with regard to abuse within the area of responsibility of the Church, which is primarily our responsibility. We have not afforded people the protection they are entitled to, have destroyed hopes, and people were massively violated in both body and soul.

È giunta l’ora, pertanto

L’obiettivo

Faccio un sentito appello

È difficile, dunque

Vorrei qui ribadire chiaramente

La disumanità

Ricordo qui il Congresso internazionale avvenuto a Roma sul tema della dignità del bambino nell’era digitale; come pure il primo Forum dell’Alleanza interreligiosa per Comunità più sicure, che ha avuto luogo, sullo stesso tema, nel novembre scorso, ad Abu Dhabi. Un’altra piaga è il turismo sessuale: secondo i dati 2017 dell’Organizzazione Mondiale del Turismo, ogni anno nel mondo tre milioni di persone si mettono in viaggio per avere rapporti sessuali con un minore[9]. Significativo il fatto che gli autori di tali crimini, nella più grande parte dei casi, non riconoscono che quello che stanno commettendo è un reato. Siamo, dunque, dinanzi a un problema universale e trasversale che purtroppo si riscontra quasi ovunque. Dobbiamo essere chiari: l’universalità di tale piaga, mentre conferma la sua gravità nelle nostre società[10], non diminuisce la sua mostruosità all’interno della Chiesa.

Dagli

Secondo i dati ufficiali del governo americano, negli Stati Uniti oltre 700.000 bambini ogni anno sono vittime di violenze e maltrattamenti, secondo l’International Center For Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), un bambino su 10 subisce abusi sessuali. In Europa 18 milioni di bambini sono vittime di abusi sessuali[5]. Se prendiamo l'esempio dell'Italia, il rapporto di “Telefono Azzurro” del 2016 evidenzia che il 68,9% degli abusi avviene all'interno delle mura domestiche del minore[6]. Teatro di violenze non è solo l’ambiente domestico, ma anche quello del quartiere, della scuola, dello sport[7] e, purtroppo, anche quello ecclesiale

La prima verità

Sarebbe importante

Di rado, infatti

Il nostro lavoro