A pastoral note concerning the sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Church...

NOTE: The following is what I am going to share early in worship tomorrow - Palm Sunday - before we begin to tell the biblical story of Christ's journey towards the Cross in Jerusalem. I am in great debt to the posting of Cathleen Falsani who noted an excellent summary in the Huffington Post by the Jesuit writer, The Reverend James Martin,http: www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-james-martin-sj/how-could-it-happen-traci_b_514965.html)

As a rule - and a spiritual practice - I almost never preach on Palm Sunday: the liturgy is too rich with symbols for me to add any additional wisdom or insight. What can I add to the time-tested story of God’s love made flesh in Jesus Christ? In a teaching - not preaching - mode I can sometimes highlight how the way of God in Christ Jesus is most clearly different from the ways of the world on this day by pointing to the Lord’s action:

• He enters the city in triumph but knows that it will lead to his death.

• He embraces fully the agony of suffering without ever letting himself be defined by it: he is always God’s servant during the passion – even in his doubts he calls out to God and trusts that God will not fail him even when there is no physical evidence.

• He is silent when the world screams for vengeance, he is a man of peace while the world acts with violence, he is a person in prayer when the status quo is obsessed with politics and he is aligned with all who suffer and are wounded when the world looks towards power, prestige and ego satisfaction.

In a word, on Palm Sunday – and later on Good Friday – Jesus most clearly exposes the upside down way of God’s path in the world. And the story tells it all… why should I only complicated matters?

But sometimes the events of our lives demand a word and to hide behind the liturgy would be wrong and even destructive to those who seek to follow the way of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. And the recent reporting of the sexual scandals within the wider church, I believe, demands a word or two on this day. For while it may be true, as Jesus taught, that if his disciples failed to lift up the gospel the very stones of Jerusalem would cry out, it is also true that to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

So let me speak to you as your pastor – not a preacher, not a prophet nor a priest – but as your pastor: one called by God to protect and comfort the flock in the spirit of Jesus. This is not a sermon, rather I hope it is a pastoral comment that can help us all move closer to God’s grace as Holy Week unfolds. Like many of you, I am heartsick, angry and bewildered by the most recent revelations of pedophilia and sexual abuse in the church. It is wrong – it is evil and sinful – and it must be prosecuted by more than canon law and secret church hearings.

• Lives have been destroyed and violated. Trust has been shredded and trampled upon.

• And everyone involved – the wounded innocent, the sexual predators hiding in the cassocks of the priesthood, the church leaders who abdicated their moral responsibilities at every level and the wider public of every denomination and spirituality – have been soiled by these heinous acts.

So let’s first be clear about the facts because sometimes our feelings can obscure the truth – and there are some big and raw feelings going on as we try to make sense out of all this ugly pain. Most of us want to know: how this could happen? Many people are asking why it is that so many Roman Catholic priests in the United States – and now also Europe – have abused under age children – and how could it have gone on for so long without any just and meaningful intervention?

• According to the best statistical information it seems that about 4% of all priests ordained in the United States between 1950 and 2000 have been accused of abuse. This is only slightly higher than other professions that work with children – including teachers – because most sexual abuse of children takes place in the family.

• Please don’t misunderstand: this is still horrible and too high a percentage – and I am not trying to hide or shield anyone’s complicity in evil – but the sad fact of the matter is that most sexual abuse happens within the family.

So one of the deeper pastoral questions the gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to consider is how do we teach one another – and our children - about a healthy sexuality? How do we encourage a love and respect for life-giving sex? How do we talk about sexual responsibility? And how do we help our children learn God’s way – rather than the way of the world – when it comes to sexual intimacy and communion?

You should know that since 2000 in the Roman Catholic Church – and the mid 1980s in our Congregational tradition – candidates for ministry must now undergo a battery of psychological testing, interviews with wise and healthy clergy and a variety of other procedures that have begun to weed-out those afflicted with pedophilia and other serious psychological problems.

Frankly, it just used to be too easy to become a priest or a minister and all denominations are now working harder to eliminate dangerous or profoundly broken candidates. This doesn’t ease the pain for those already wounded, but you need to know things are getting better.

And since the 1990s churches like our own have developed some very clear and meaningful safe-guards known as “safe church” procedures to help protect our children even further. At First Church, we put our own safe church procedure for Sunday School teachers and staff into effect last year.

• Our goal was to use time-tested practices that minimize the potential for abusive situations: like there must always be at least two adults present with children, there must always be open doors in our Sunday School activities and we make certain that another person – usually our church secretary – is both in the building and knows who I am meeting with at any and all times.

• Parents may want to request a copy of this safe church procedure both for their own peace of mind as well as to know why it is we do some of the things we do – so please do so!

It is true, of course, that no set of procedures alone can keep our children or congregation fully safe: if someone is driven by a sexual compulsion we must ALL be on alert. Still, I want you to know that we have been proactive on this matter. And, if any violation takes place that wounds our children or a congregant, we will prosecute to the full extent of the law. It is not only the right thing to do morally, it is also essential for the well-being of those who have been hurt to know that we will not tolerate secrets or illegal and immoral activity.

As your pastor I want you to know how seriously I take the safety of your children – and your safety, too – because we can’t be the body of Christ together if we aren’t safe. How can we act for justice and compassion in the world if we fail in our own community? How can we speak truth to power if we fail to deal with our own brokenness? And how can we live into the words of Jesus if we ignore them closest to home? Jesus was explicit:

You will find me wherever you find the hungry, the vulnerable, the broken, the wounded, the naked, the innocent and those who are oppressed.

So as we go into the deeper truths of Holy Week – walking with Christ towards the Cross – let me ask you to be prayerful for all the wounded in this tragedy.

• Please do not demonize all Roman Catholic priests because of the actions of a few. Perhaps this goes without saying but we have been called to be people of peace, not hatred or prejudice. I recall right after September 11th how so many of our Muslim friends were not only subjected to renewed hatred and violence, but were unfairly lumped into the category of terrorist by the accident of their birth. So let us not advance anything that would play into bigotry – including anti-Catholic fear.

• Let us be equally clear that justice for the victims – not words alone – is essential for healing the wounds of sexual violence and abuse. When you talk about this ugly reality with friends and colleagues, never forget that there is a place in God’s heart for punishing sexual predators. Their sacred calling must never get in the way of experiencing the full consequences of their actions for there is not one set of rules for the laity and another for the clergy. What’s more, those who have been abused NEED to see their abusers punished.

Finally let us strengthen and share the ways our own tradition works to keep our children – and adults – safe and accountable. We have some time-tested ways that are very different from the Roman Church – we don’t idealize our clergy, for example, nor do we give them responsibility without accountability – and the whole church might be aided by sharing these charisms in a careful and humble way.

We have a part to play in bringing healing to this tragedy because we are a part of the body of Christ in the world. Thank you for listening carefully. And now, as we prepare to re-enter the story of our Lord’s journey towards Jerusalem, let me ask you to be with me in prayer:

Almighty God, in your tender love for humanity you sent Christ Jesus to take up the essence of our nature. In this he experienced betrayal and fear, loneliness and even death on the cross. In our own sorrow, Jesus stands with us now in humility, empowering us to embrace our own suffering as we move towards the resurrection. Hear our prayer, for we share it in the spirit of Jesus, who with you lives and reigns together with the Holy Spirit as one God, now and forever. Amen.