"Good Shepherd Sunday" -- Inglorious Irony?

This weekend is both Education Sunday for the Annual Catholic Appeal in the Archdiocese of Seattle, and also the 4th Sunday of Easter, or "Good Shepherd" Sunday. I find I can't just talk about the first without directly addressing the tragic irony of the second.

I'll post my homily here on Monday -- it's already written -- but for the benefit of any parishioners who might check this web site (since I encourage that in my homily this weekend) I'd like to give a bit of background. My sense is that I've followed the news items on this a LOT more closely than most of my parishioners, both because my wife is professionally very knowledgeable about (child) sexual abuse and because in the late '80's I reported on a priest in the Seattle Archdiocese, which became very public knowledge when things "blew up" about these cases nationally in 2002.

First, I would urge my parishioners to read my blog of March 27th, in which I reference John Allen's fine reporting on this topic. John Allen for years has written the "Vatican beat" for the National Catholic Reporter, and his knowledge and coverage of the Vatican is simply unparalleled in this country, in my humble opinion! In my 3/27 post I reference three major points that are either misreported or simply unreported in the current windstorm. Allen insists on accuracy first! I also quote the editorial position of his paper, which was published at the same time as his column. The NCR calls on the pope to "directly answer questions, in a credible forum, about his role -- as archbishop of Munich (1977-82), as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1982-2005), and as pope (2005-present) -- in the mismanagement of the clergy sex abuse crisis." That one sentence crystalized the situation for me.

To follow that up, I would like to briefly list the following links and quotes for my parishioners or others to check out, all written by John Allen:

*His column of 3/26, “Keeping the record straight on Benedict and the crisis." This was referenced above and in my earlier blog.

**His 4/2 column on “Is middle ground possible on the Pope?” I was tempted to post that column here in its entirety, but the link will do. In this column Allen lists several other interviews he has given on this topic, which I do want to mention here. They are:

1. New York Times op/ed piece on Sunday, March 28
2. On-line chat for the Washington Post on Tuesday, March 30
3. The Charlie Rose Show on Wednesday, March 31
4. Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday, April 1
5. Southern California Public Radio on Wednesday, March 31
6. NPR’s Talk of the Nation on Monday, March 29

**His column of 4/16, "Can a teaching Pope get his house in order?" In this column he affirms that "Benedict shouldn’t be the church’s problem in terms of responding to the sex abuse crisis -- he should be the answer. However much unfinished business the Catholic church may still face, the situation would be infinitely worse if then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had not kick-started the process of reform in 2001 by streamlining the system for removing predator priests from ministry." He goes on to add that "If the Vatican had an effective PR machine, they would have touted Ratzinger from the beginning as the Rudy Giuliani of the Catholic church, the guy who gave us “zero tolerance” policing and thereby cleaned up Times Square." As for the role of the media in this whole mess, he has this to say: "However much media bias may play a role in stacking the deck against the pope, it’s also true that the Vatican’s “crisis management” strategy has, if anything, made the crisis worse." Unfortunately, all too true.

**Finally, his column of 4/17, “Crisis hangs over pope…like volcanic ash," in which he discusses the Hullermann case, a priest who "came into Munich on Ratzinger’s watch, apparently without explicit restrictions on his ministry, and went on to abuse other people for which he was criminally convicted in 1986."

And lastly, I'd like to end this posting with the same way I ended on 3/27. I especially welcome any comments from my fellow parishioners at St. Bridget, here or through my church e-mail address, which is on our web site and in the bulletin!

"As disgusting and revolting as the actions of priest perpetrators have been, as damaging as those actions were to their victims and their families, the response or lack thereof by many of our Church leaders -- then and now -- has damaged our Church more. Someone I love and respect said of these recent events: 'I don't know if I can hang in there with our Church anymore; it just seems that our Institution is corrupt to the core.'

This hits me in the stomach, and in the heart."