Reflecting on the Papal Visit - 10

On Friday afternoon, Benedict XVI met with 5 victims of clergy sexual abuse from the Boston area, three men and two women. They prayed together and each of the five had time alone with the pope to speak with the pope. As reported by Tania deLuzuriaga in the Boston Globe today (4/20/08):

Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley became emotional yesterday as he recounted to reporters the dramatic and unprecedented meeting earlier this week between Pope Benedict XVI and five people from Boston who had been sexually abused by priests.

Asked how difficult the meeting was for him personally, O'Malley paused for a long moment and appeared to tear up.

"Just seeing the book makes a great impact," he said, referring to a handmade document he gave the pontiff listing the names of nearly 1,500 alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston. As the pope slowly turned the pages, the cardinal mentioned that some of the victims died from suicide or drug abuse. "I know the Holy Father was touched by it as well" he said at a news conference... held yesterday.

O'Malley, who has met with hundreds of Boston-area abuse victims, quietly brokered the historic meeting, writing three times to the Vatican to request the audience in the months after Benedict decided not to visit Boston during this week's trip to the United States.

"I was anxious to dispel the idea that the Holy Father was avoiding coming to Boston because of the sex abuse crisis," O'Malley said. "I also wanted him to appreciate that this is such a serious issue and we needed to hear from him about this," he said... Asked what lies ahead for the Boston Archdiocese, O'Malley said he hopes that people who are concerned about the safety of children will "see us as allies."

"The sexual abuse problem is not something that's just a Catholic problem or a church problem, it's a human problem," O'Malley said. "Certainly the fact that the church dealt with it so poorly in the past was the scandal. But I'd like to think that our Catholic people now are sensitized and working very hard to try and bring about reconciliation and to make our church just the safest place possible."

"I was very, very moved by the whole experience," O'Malley said. "The Holy Father spoke about the pain he felt and the shame. He said that for so long he's been praying by those who have been damaged, touched, and hurt by the whole experience. . . . It was a very moving and a very reassuring experience. The Holy Father feels very deeply what these survivors have gone through..."

While only a part of the far-ranging agenda of the papal visit, Benedict's comments on the sexual abuse crisis were, I believe, much more than anyone expected. Such commentary and the meeting with victims are long overdue but in some cases, it's never too late to do what needs to be done. That, of course, is not to suggest that now everything that needs to be done has been accomplished. The work of attending to and healing from the sexual abuse crisis will be a concern for the Church for generations to come. Still, incredibly important steps were taken this week.

It would, however, be a mistake to think that these were the first steps. The Boston Globe reports that Sean O'Malley has met with hundreds of victims in his tenure as Archbishop of Boston. These meetings are, of their nature, personal, confidential and often not matter for publication. Yet one continues to hear that "the bishops refuse to even talk to the victims."

Rome wasn't built in a day and the Vatican seldom moves on anything overnight. It should come as no surprise, then, that the meeting on Friday needed to be "brokered" by Cardinal O'Malley through a series of exchanges between him, the nuncio in Washington, Archbishop Sambi, and the offices of the pope. Such a process may reveal less about the Vatican's hesitancy on this all of this and more about how Rome operates. As I've said to a number of people, "Please don't be too surprised when the Vatican acts like the Vatican and the pope speaks like the pope."

Telling and compelling was O'Malley's presentation to Benedict of the handmade book containing the names of 1,500 alleged abuse victims from the Boston archdiocese. As the pope paged through it, the archbishop of the epicenter of the abuse scandal told him of the victims who died of suicide and drug abuse. I mused in my first post in this series on who packs the papal suitcases for a trip such as this. Imagine packing for the return and taking such a document home with you...

"The book" is second only to what victim Bernie McDaid told the pope in the chapel where the meeting took place: "I basically told him that I was an altar boy ... a young boy praying to God at the time that I was abused. I told him it wasn't just sexual abuse, it was spiritual abuse, and that I wanted him to know that. And then I told him that he has a cancer growing in his ministry and needs to do something about it. And I told him I hope he hears me right, and that I touched his heart."

Bernie McDaid has it right: there's a cancer in the ministry of the Church and it needs treatment.

What treatment comes of this past week's words, prayers and deeds I cannot predict. As I noted in an earlier post, I do not anticipate the Vatican relieving bishops of their diocesan posts - nor am I convinced that such action would necessarily satisfy the anger and demands of some. We can never go back to "business as usual." It will always be different. How we continue learn from and make changes based on this tragic history is both in process and remains to be seen.

I am very grateful for what was revealed and communicated this past week in Benedict's comments, talks and homilies and for Sean O'Malley's role in shaping a critically important healing moment in the life of the Church. At each celebration of the Eucharist I pray for "Benedict our pope and Sean our bishop..." Over the past 24 hours I prayed those words at four Masses with my parish community. Not since Sean O'Malley came to Boston and Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope did I pray those words with such gratitude and hope.

-ConcordPastor