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Father Fred’s Sermon of April 7, 2002

 Re: Clergy Misconduct

A great title for today’s Gospel might be: “Jesus appears to the track stars in the Upper Room”. Why do I call them TRACKSTARS? Because most of the Apostles up to this point have distinguished themselves as runners. They took off and ran after Jesus was arrested! When Jesus appears to them, Judas was absent because he had killed himself, Peter was filled with guilt about having denied Jesus, Thomas was absent and later displays his complete doubt about Jesus having risen. The Gospel of Mark describes one follower of Jesus who runs off into the night naked because when the guards grabbed him, he kept on running. It was an interesting crew that Jesus had assembled around him.

As a much-later addition to that “crew” I want to share with you my feelings about the recent publicity surrounding the reports we hear almost daily regarding clergy misconduct. I am sad, embarrassed, depressed, ashamed and mostly ANGRY. On this Mercy Sunday, when we are supposed to ask for and receive mercy, I must confess that I am still very ANGRY at any priest who would in any way compromise the dignity or privacy of a child or youth. I am so angry that if I were to encounter some of these priests, who like Judas, committed spiritual murder; I think I would like to punch him in the nose! I think I would DO much more damage if I just SAT on the guy!

I am also angry with some Bishops who, while they exercised charity and forgiveness and mercy toward offending clergy, they were guilty of bad judgment and a lack of common sense. Some times I think that Bishops exercise more charity than common sense. If you steal from me, I must eventually, if not sooner, forgive you. However, I probably won’t offer you the keys to my car the next day, or the keys to the rectory, if you get my drift.

I am excited to know that our new Bishop, Victor Galeone has NEVER been in the chancery before. So many bishops are bred and brought up in chancery positions and seldom encounter the real world of parishes. I think that breeds a distancing from common sense. Bishop Galeone is an outsider and can “think outside the box” and having been a pastor and dealing with the everyday realities of parish life, I think gives him a better insight into common realities.

There are a few other bright spots in this otherwise dark problem: the numbers are small. Although one incident is too many, USA Today reports that of the 50,000 priests in the US, 800 have been accused (1.6%) and 150 arrests (0.3%). You will find that other denominations have much higher incidents of these things, but you won’t find that on the evening news or in the paper. It is partly because we are the largest denomination and partly because of our stand on such things as abortion that the media is having a “Field Day”.

The other “bright spot” if there is any is that these incidents are mostly old stuff. Most are ten, or twenty or more years ago.

This is before the church put in some of the current safeguards now in place. The fact that most of these are old makes me believe that some of these safeguards are kicking in. For example all priest, deacon, religious and lay volunteers must be fingerprinted and have a background check before working with children.

You will hear more reports as people start remembering back twenty years ago. Hopefully these priests are gone. My only fear is that when there are generous settlements, people may strain to remember things in one way and not another, and the innocent could get swept up with the guilty.

We must ask ourselves, “Does this destroy the holiness of the Church?” Well, did Judas ruin Jesus? Of course not. Did the fact that Judas, stole, disbelieved, betrayed and killed himself, make Jesus or what He taught us invalid? Of course not. It has been said that Judas and these priests perpetrators committed spiritual murder. Anyone who looses their faith over this commits spiritual suicide!

Like I said on Good Friday, this is the church’s “9-11” and just like after the attack on the World Trade Center, we became a stronger nation. The church is going though purification and will be stronger for it.

For me the low point was just before Holy Week. At the Chrism Mass, Bishop Galeone gave a great homily which challenged the priests to go forward. At the close of the Mass, as the priests left the Cathedral-Basilica there was a rousing applause, which I had never witnessed before. It brought tears to my eyes. It said, in a collective way, “The 27 years you have given is not lost, is not in vain--hang in there.” Likewise so many of you folks, without mentioning the obvious subject, have said to us, “How are you doing? Or Hang in there”, etc.

When I am discouraged I often turn to one of my favorite passages from St. Paul to the Corinthians (2Cor5-12)

“But we know that what we posses in earthen vessels to make it clear that its surpassing power comes from God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way possible but we are not crushed; full of doubts, we never despair. We are persecuted but never abandoned; we are struck down but never destroyed. Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may be revealed. While we live, we are constantly being delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. Death is at work in us but life in you’

On Good Friday, it seemed like all was lost and that Satan had Jesus right where he wanted him. But in the “disaster” of Good Friday was the beginning of Redemption. Jesus rose from the dead, Easter came, the Apostles pulled themselves together, the Holy Spirit guided, they elected another AND THEY WENT ON.

The church is made of you and me and it is both holy and human. It is made up of people who sin and mess up, but its soul is the Holy Spirit and like it did from the beginning it suffered, reflected, rejoiced in the power of the Spirit, AND WENT ON. It did that twenty centuries ago, it has faced many crises since that time, and it went on. It did it back then AND IT WILL DO IT NOW.