As a parish we have advocated and prayed for three simple things for a holier Church: truth, accountability, and transparency.
Our
Three Simple Things Novena of Sundays ended February 24 on the last of the four-day Vatican summit to address the protection of minors in the Catholic Church.
Where do we stand today? Have our prayers been answered? The short answer is “not yet.” But there are hopeful signs.
Overview of the Vatican Summit
The February Vatican summit was widely panned in the secular media as a failure and also simultaneously hailed as a success by the usual Pope Francis cheerleaders.
My personal assessment of the summit is more moderate. I would agree with the
Religion News Service assessment by Mark Silk that the summit rated an “incomplete”
(link here). The summit was adequate as an interim step that will ultimately be measured by the concrete action that follows.
One hopeful concrete step was taken March 29
th by Pope Francis himself. He established a new policy for the protection of minors at the Vatican, including mandatory reporting of suspected abuse with penalties of fines and jail time for failures to report. The new policy also put “vulnerable adults” in the same category as minors for sexual abuse.
Here in the United States, our hope for concrete action turns to the USCCB meeting this June. At present they are expected at this meeting to apply the norms of the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People to bishops. In addition, they are expected to create a lay review process for allegations of misconduct by bishops.
As this meeting approaches, we will offer prayer petitions for its success at our Sunday Masses at St. E’s.
Our Wait Continues
As I write this, we are still waiting for two important developments.
First, we are still waiting for the promised Church report on the accusations of sexual misconduct involving seminarians and young priests by formerly Cardinal McCarrick, who has since been laicized. The key question this report needs to answer is how McCarrick managed to rise in the hierarchy despite the widespread rumors of his misconduct.
Second, we are still waiting for the appointment of a new Archbishop of Washington. It is rumored that Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta will soon be appointed. Of note is the fact that he was the president of the USCCB from 2001 to 2004 during the height of the Catholic scandals that led to the Dallas Charter in 2002.
Whoever becomes our next archbishop, he ought to provide a clear and unequivocal answer to the following questions:
What and when did you first hear about the accusations of sexual misconduct by Theodore McCarrick?
What did you do about it?
May the power of the Holy Spirit guide Pope Francis to send us a holy shepherd who embraces truth, accountability, and transparency.