21st Sunday Year B - Homily 4

 

Homily 4 - 2018

I remember in the early seventies being strongly tempted to leave the priesthood. I felt that the Australian Church was unwilling to open itself to the spirit of the Vatican Council. It felt like a dead weight dragging me down. I did briefly consider other options; but finished up, fortunately, a bit like St Peter in today’s Gospel, “Lord, to whom shall I go. You have the message of eternal life – and I believe, I know you are the Holy One of God.” I shall be eternally grateful for the leadership Peter showed on this occasion. It is what has helped to keep me on board right across the years of my priesthood, and still helps me in the present situation as we keep reeling from the fallout of the disastrous reality of clerical sexual abuse and the hopelessly inadequate ways we endeavoured to deal with it.

I think it has helped me understand and sympathise with those who have left the Church of recent years, particularly the fathers and mothers of young children. And it leads me to admire and to be grateful to those of you who keep hanging in. It would not surprise me that Peter’s comment to Jesus has helped you, too, in your choice.

You might have noticed in today’s Parish Bulletin an insert containing the text of a letter written last week by Pope Francis. Interestingly, he has written it specifically to “The People of God”. That includes everyone in the Church, but I think it applies especially to you, the laity. I wonder why he wrote to you. Since he has been Pope, he has written and spoken to the bishops on a number of occasions. I wonder if he feels somewhat disappointed with the responses of many [most?] of them.

Anyhow, importantly, this letter is addressed to you; and to read more into it may simply be a case of projection on my part.

Basically, Francis sees the issue of clergy sexual abuse, what has happened and what needs to happen, as an issue involving the whole Church. He wants the whole Church, you, me, the bishops and cardinals, to see this, not just as one issue among many, but as the one crying out to be addressed.

Some people have criticized the letter for being short on practical measures of accountability and sanctions, especially of defaulting bishops. I felt that first, too, but on reflection, I think that is a mistaken reading. Francis is calling firstly for something much more basic. He is calling for a changed Church. Without that, other changes would simply be cosmetic.

To simply hope that the problem will go away in time would be disastrous. To think that it can be resolved by more effective rules and regulations, sanctions, commissions, etc, indispensable as they are, is wishful thinking. He calls us all to radical conversion. He surprised me by calling us, in fact, to prayer and fasting – whatever can impress on us the magnitude of the challenge facing us. What we are facing is the Mystery of Sin – capital “M” Mystery and capital “S” Sin.

A major expression of this Mystery of Sin, according to Francis, is what he calls clericalism. This is what he wrote: “… clericalism … tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit has placed in people’s hearts. Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, … supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today”. And he then went on to write, “To say “no” to abuse is to say an emphatic “no” to all forms of clericalism”.

Our indispensable starting point is to see as Sin, as our Sin, not just the terrible abuse but the cover-up, and the general mood and attitudes that allowed it. We have to be appalled by our Sin, before any of us will really do anything significant about it. “Prayer and penance” – perhaps not such a quaint suggestion to start with after all. I wonder how many of us will really listen.