Column
by
Archbishop John G. Vlazny
|
Archbishop's
Column by Archbishop John G. Vlazny |
God’s presence, healing grace strongest
in our darkest hours
5/17/02
The 50 days of Easter are winding down
and will culminate with the
celebration of Pentecost on Sunday, May
19. That feast is often described
as the “birthday of the church.” With
the coming of the Holy Spirit upon
the Lord’s disciples gathered in the upper
room, the mission of Jesus
Christ was passed on to His disciples.
Ever since then, the principal
agent for building up the kingdom of God
on earth was the church, that
intrepid group of believers popularly
called the “people of God” ever
since the Second Vatican Council.
These have been hard days for the Church.
Scandalous behavior and
unrelenting criticism continue to plague
our Catholic community here in
the United States. As discouraging as
all of this may be for so many of
us, we remain a people of hope. Our 2,000-year
history clearly signals
that when God’s people are afflicted with
their darkest hours, God’s
presence and healing grace is strongest.
Some years ago when I was going through
a particularly humiliating
situation in my pastoral ministry, I was
feeling rather low. A good
spiritual director of mine reminded me
that humiliation isn’t necessarily
such a bad thing. After all, it’s what
makes most folks humble. Humility
is simply not a virtue most of us seek.
It is something we learn under
fire.
Throughout this Easter season, we have
been celebrating the paschal
mystery of Jesus Christ — His passion,
death and resurrection. In a way,
the church is now enduring a paschal death.
Such death is inevitably
followed by new life. Such a blessed outcome
is not the result of our own
efforts. It is the work of the Holy Spirit,
whose abiding presence among
us we Christian people celebrate at Pentecost.
Recently I heard this moment in the history
of the church described as an
“upper room moment.” It is a time when
we must wait for the coming of the
Holy Spirit to renew us and empower us
once again just as the Lord’s
disciples waited long ago in the upper
room before Pentecost.
We face so many challenges. Church attendance
and vocations to ordained
ministry and the consecrated life are
down. The scandal of child abuse by
ordained priests is loudly proclaimed
in the media both by those who are
justifiably concerned about protecting
children and by those who are eager
to seize this moment for church reform
or church diminishment. The
disenchantment of so many of the faithful
is matched by the discouragement
of countless pastoral ministers, ordained
and lay. We search for
solutions, but they don’t come easily.
Waiting and not knowing are truly
humbling. But they also open wide the
doors of our hearts to the grace and
wisdom of God.
Recently there was great disappointment
expressed by the media and many of
you in the statements that came out of
Rome after the meeting of the
American cardinals with the Holy Father
about our present scandal. The
Catholic Church is a very complicated
institution and its governance is
not quite as simple as many commentators
would have people believe. The
head of each local diocese is its bishop,
not the Pope or a group of
cardinals. The diocesan bishop, a successor
of the apostles, provides
pastoral care for his people in collaboration
with the college of bishops
under the leadership of the Bishop of
Rome. Unity in the essentials of
faith and morals is a given. But there
is considerable diversity among the
diocesan churches all over the world,
particularly in many practical
aspects of governance.
The bishops of a particular nation may
concur about any uniform policy of
governance, provided that they do so with
the approval of two thirds of
their membership and the ratification
of the Holy See. Hence the
conversation between the Holy Father and
the cardinals cleared the way for
the bishops to discuss such a policy concerning
child abuse at our meeting
in June. It would seem that the recent
gathering in Rome made Roman
approval of any agreement that the American
bishops might achieve a
foregone conclusion. I hope so. But even
with a uniform policy in the
future, undoubtedly it will have diverse
implications for each diocese of
the nation, depending upon varied civil
statutes from state to state
affecting such serious matters in our
highly litigious society.
But while we prepare for Pentecost 2002,
as archbishop of the Catholic
community here in western Oregon, I am
pleased to say that we as a people
are proceeding honestly, sincerely, compassionately
and responsibly in
dealing with all the claims of child abuse
by church personnel. The
situation is exacerbated, of course, because
some of the charges go back
more than 50 years. Alleged perpetrators
are deceased and the web of
victimization continues to spread far
and wide, but not beyond the
practical reach of our care and concerns.
We shall do our best.
This year’s birthday won’t be the happiest
one for the church, but it will
undoubtedly be a graced time as we all
once again publicly seek
reconciliation with those who at any time
were victimized by our priests.
True healing and reconciliation, of course,
will only be fully achieved
when our apology is accepted and the spirit
of trust and mutual respect is
reestablished. We pray that a few saints
will come and lead us to that
graced moment. And saints there will be!
These are hard times that call for patience,
perseverance and prayer. Even
though we may not feel up to the task,
in God’s providence, you and I are
the ones called upon to achieve that longed-for
moment of reconciliation
with all victims, with those estranged
from the church, with society and
with ourselves.
Yes, we are much like those first disciples,
waiting in the upper room. We
have one advantage. We know from experience
that the Holy Spirit does come.