The Compassion of God

It was pointed out under the thread of my last post that God has produced certain fruits through the NCW.  These fruits have nothing to do with getting a good education, gaining more knowledge of Sacred Scripture, or even becoming a better person on your own.  

It is easy to love your families and friends.  But who among us can love the enemy?  Who among us can have compassion for those who persecute us?  Who can forgive those who kill?  The following article speaks about compassion.  A couple of things in the article caught my attention: 

1. There are signs that the leadership of our Church now dabbles in this same distortion that there are sins that God should not forgive, and even if He does, the Church will not.  This is heresy,..... 
2. Regarding the parable of the Prodigal Son.....Though the Father’s mercy has been fulfilled, the older son’s compassion has failed. The great challenge of this parable is the fact that it is left open ended and without a resolution. It is left with the older son, the one who – according to the law alone has always been faithful – is left standing outside the house with the Father trying to convince him to enter the banquet feast. The younger son is made righteous by grace and mercy while the older son is revealed as self-righteous. 

 You can find the following article here.

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St. Luke proclaims the Parable of the Prodigal Son on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, and it has a fascinating back story. Is there a sin that is beyond the mercy of God?

“Ecclesiastes calls you the All-Powerful; Maccabees calls you the Creator; the Epistle to the Ephesians calls you Liberty; Baruch calls you Immensity; the Psalms call you Wisdom and Truth; John calls you Light; the Book of Kings calls you Lord; Exodus calls you Providence; Leviticus, Sanctity; Esdras, Justice; Genesis calls you God; man calls you Father; Solomon calls you Compassion, and that is the most beautiful of all your names.” (Bishop Bienvenu in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, 1887) [See Les Mis on TSW]

During Lent a few years back, I wrote “Semper Fi! Forty Days of Lent Giving Up Giving Up.” Among the multiple characters appearing in that post was my friend, Martin. At the time I wrote it, I had been living in a hellish environment in this prison. My dismay at living there grew deeper on the day Martin showed up because I knew he was going to be subjected to cruelty and ridicule, and I knew that I would have to intervene somehow.

Martin was well into his eighties when he was sent to prison for the first time in his life. He was missing a leg, a fact which confined him to a wheelchair. Because of prison overcrowding, he was living out in the open in an overflow bunk in a large prison dayroom where nearly a hundred bored and lost young men raised hell day and night. One night shortly after Martin arrived, one or two of those dumbasses thought it would be cool to take his wheelchair while he was asleep and put it in the shower with the water running. Martin’s books, letters, and other papers tucked into pockets in the chair were ruined.

But that was the least of his problems that day. When he awoke that Saturday morning, when his chair was nowhere in sight, Martin sat on the edge of his bunk wondering how he would get to the lavatory. A small group of smirking young prisoners skulked like hyenas from a distance to watch the show. This is a game prisoners play with the weak or vulnerable. They place bets to see how long it would take to get someone like Martin to “check in” to protective custody.

I stepped out of my cell that morning, cup of instant coffee in hand, and spotted Martin from a distance sitting on his bunk looking worried. A quick scan of the room told me what happened. So I went in search of his chair, found it in the shower, and brought it to him. I dried it off and took him to the bathroom.

Then I brought Martin some coffee and sat with him for awhile, something that became a daily event for months to come. I learned that Martin is a Marine who served in Korea. He long ago had given up giving up and would never cave in to the antics of thugs.

I called a couple of them over one day and introduced them to Martin. Then I put them in charge of guarding his chair at night, not letting on that I knew they were the ones who took it in the first place. Longing for a sense of purpose even more than they sought to entertain themselves, they stepped up admirably. I came back from work a few times to see one or two of them, having now absconded with MY chair, sitting and talking with Martin. His life got a little better. So did theirs. So did mine. Martin is gone now, having been paroled to a nursing home for veterans. But one hard truth remains engraved upon my brain. Prison is no country for old men – not even old Marines.

I had Martin in mind when I again unwittingly became “The Priest Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” a few weeks ago. I stumbled upon FOX News on the evening of March 8 just in time to hear EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo in an angry rant about the thoroughly disgraced Theodore McCarrick, age 89 and the first Cardinal in a century to face the penalty of dismissal from the clerical state. “I don’t care if he’s 89,” declared Mr. Arroyo. “He ought to be in jail.”

I have long respected Raymond Arroyo, but I was shocked by this and lapsed into a rant of my own. I called my friend, Father George David Byers, and vented. Then I asked him to help me post on Facebook and LinkedIn my diatribe against what I understood to be a lack of compassion for Theodore McCarrick. “Is mercilessness to be the face of the new Catholic Church?” I asked.

Over the next three days, I was roundly beaten up, on LinkedIn especially, by Catholics who agree entirely with Raymond Arroyo on this. I had grossly underestimated the sense of betrayal and anger that American Catholics feel toward McCarrick who has thus far presented no public sign of remorse or repentance. I also underestimated the capacity of some Catholics for compassion. Some of those who argued against me wrote that mercy requires repentance and there hasn’t been any. That is true. For God’s justice to be tempered with God’s mercy requires repentance.

THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON

But compassion is different from mercy. And as Bishop Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel points out in the moving quote from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables atop this post, among all the names of God, “Compassion is the most beautiful.” Compassion from us does not require repentance from those who trespass against us. It requires only humility, from us. It is the capacity that I wrote about in “The Last Full Measure: Love Your Enemies,” a post about the most radical and challenging portent of Jesus “The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you” (Luke 6 38).

No where in Sacred Scripture do mercy and compassion clash more than in the Gospel from St. Luke for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Like so much of Sacred Scripture, the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) is a story told with multiple levels of meaning. The first and most obvious is the story on its surface.

Tax collectors and sinners were gathering around Jesus, and the Pharisees and scribes grumbled. The Pharisees were loosely knit collection of groups within Judaism that came to prominence at the time of the Maccabean revolt against Hellenist invaders around 167 BC. The Pharisees were only some 6,000 during the Earthly time of Jesus. They wanted Israel to be a theocracy, a religiously oriented society governed by a strict observance of the law.

Some of the scribes were numbered among the other grumblers against Jesus who triggered the Parable of the Prodigal Son and insisted on strict observance of the law. They were antagonistic to Jesus, and in the end these pharisees and scribes together plotted with the Chief Priests for his betrayal and arrest.

On its face, the famous parable is a clash between mercy and compassion. The original listeners, the Pharisees and scribes, would have found quite familiar the story of a younger brother triumphing over the goals and objectives of an older brother. The parable has echoes of Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:27-34) and Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 37:1-4). In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus cleverly reverses the triumph of the younger brother to portray the younger son as a dismal failure who abandons Judaism to adopt Gentile ways.

The most stinging of his offenses to the ears of the Pharisee, was that fact that he was reduced to feeding the pigs for a Gentile farmer. Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, pigs take on another symbolism far beyond the ancient Mosaic law that holds them as unclean. In Luke (8:26-39) Jesus restores a demented and possessed Gentile to the human community. By casting the evil spirits out of the man and into a herd of pigs that then drive themselves into the sea, Jesus reveals himself as having authority not only over Judaism but also over pagan religion, demonic forces, and Roman rule which is symbolized by the pigs. In the Parable at hand, the younger son becomes a servant to the pigs, the lowest one could ever descend from the Law of Moses.

In the end of the Parable, the younger son comes to his senses and attempts a return to his Father who welcomes him with full restoration of the sonship he abandoned. The Parable directly confronts a position of the Pharisees: that there are sins that are beyond the capacity of even God to forgive.

LIFE AFTER DEATH

There are signs that the leadership of our Church now dabbles in this same distortion that there are sins that God should not forgive, and even if He does, the Church will not. This is heresy, and it is a heresy that I described in “Five Years of Pope Francis in a Time of Heresy.” The heresy may not be what you may think it is.

It is expressed in striking clarity in the second part of the Parable in the reaction of the Prodigal Son’s older brother. The triumph of the younger son over older brothers seen in the Hebrew Scriptures in the stories of Esau and Jacob, and Joseph and his brothers, here becomes not the triumph of the younger but the failure of the older. Once the Father’s mercy had been fulfilled in the Parable, the older son refused to acknowledge his return as his brother. “This son of yours” (Luke 15:30) is a striking refusal of the older son to say, “This brother of mine.”

Though the Father’s mercy has been fulfilled, the older son’s compassion has failed. The great challenge of this parable is the fact that it is left open ended and without a resolution. It is left with the older son, the one who – according to the law alone has always been faithful – is left standing outside the house with the Father trying to convince him to enter the banquet feast. The younger son is made righteous by grace and mercy while the older son is revealed as self-righteous.

At another level, this Parable narrates to its original listeners – the Pharisees and scribes – the account of Israel’s history that they fear most. It is an allegory about what happened after the reign of King Solomon – the one whom called God “Compassion.” Israel divided into Northern and Southern kingdoms, living as two brothers with one in exile. Then, in the Eighth Century BC the Assyrians carried the Northern Tribes of Israel into “a far country” – just like the younger son in the parable – where they abandoned God and worshipped idols. It was a sin that the Prophets called “harlotry” (Jeremiah 3:6 and Hosea 4:15).

The McCarrick story has made this ever more complicated. Please do not confuse my compassion as excusing him. As Cardinal McCarrick, he was one of the chief proponents of the Dallas Charter that cast priests into the desert as scapegoats, in many cases – and I am one of them – guilty only for being accused. It is not easy to hold onto any sense of compassion for him, but there are a lot of things that my conscience says I must do that are not easy.

I cannot speak to the Church’s application of mercy. There does not appear to be any just as there does not appear to be much in the way of McCarrick’s public repentance as an acknowledgment of his need for mercy. I can only speak to compassion – my own and that of others. I fear that it is becoming an endangered species in our Church as we circle the wagons to declare who is inside and outside the house.

Let’s face this other scandal head-on. Stop wishing old men into prison. Some of us confuse righteous with self-righteous. If mercy fails, we are doomed in the hereafter. But if compassion fails, we are doomed in the here and now.  

Grateful for the NCW

I, for one, am very grateful for this charism, the NCW.  How can one be so ungrateful especially after seeing the fruits from first hand experience?  Many thanks to RMS priests such as Father Alberto, Father Nino, Father Santiago, Father Edivaldo, Father Krysztof and other priests and deacons who encouraged people like us to join the Way.  How grateful they would be to see us continuing our walk and bearing fruits.  Some of the fruits of the Way include:

1.  Families who are open to life. 
2.  Mission families who are willing to leave everything behind to evangelize. 
3.  Celibacy among single people.
4.  Itinerants who are willing to evangelize in other countries.  
5.  Community members who forgive others and ask forgiveness from those whom they have wronged. 
6.  The faith being transmitted in the family from parents to children.
7.  The calling of members into the priesthood or the monastery.
8.  Marriages were saved.

Of course, we are no better than our brothers who are not walking in the Way.  We all face the same problems and struggles.  From time to time, even we fall into sin.  But the most important thing is that Christ is there to help us get up so that we can continue our walk. After all, salvation is a process, a journey toward holiness.  I, for one, am very grateful that God was able to help me and my family through this charism.  I am most especially grateful to the RMS priest who encouraged us to attend the first catechesis. The happiness of a priest would be to bring his sheep to God for that is his role.     

The NCW is not for everyone, but God allowed so many different charisms in the Catholic Church to meet the unique needs of His people.  I, for one, am grateful for this charism.        

The Mount of Olives to the NCW

The following article was given to me, and I had to translate it into English on my computer.  The English translation from my computer may not be perfect, but it's the best I can do.  You can find the article here.  Now, based on the title, most are probably thinking that the NCW now owns the Mount of Olives.  Our Statutes stated that the NCW cannot own any assets such as property.  So, for clarification, the Mount of Olives belongs to a foundation, which has given exclusive rights to the NCW for its use.  
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The Mount of Olives to the Neocatechumenals

The Mount of Olives was sold. The half hectare of land that is located in Jerusalem at 800 meters high and with spectacular views of the city is now owned. Il Sole 24 Ore informs us that the Monte Tabor Foundation in liquidation, the entity that in the past controlled the San Raffaele hospital in Milan until the 2011 crisis and the subsequent sale in 2012 to the Rotelli healthcare business group was to sell. .

After a long procedure of sale and various negotiations opened and closed over two or three years, at the end the plot overlooking the eastern side of the Old City and overlooking the valley of Giosafat - where according to the Bible (Joel 3,2) the Universal Judgment should be held, when it is - the Fundacion Domus Jerusalen, based in Panama, an entity headed by the neo-catechumenals, the much-branched Catholic organization, especially in the Spanish-speaking world, but also in Italy. Final price: 5.1 million euros.

The Mount of Olives is composed of three hills: the ground just given from Monte Tabor to the Fundacion is in the central part, called Monte Santo, or Djebel el Tur, in the upper zone of the ridge just above the Garden of Gethsemane and near - but not neighboring - to the great Jewish cemetery.

To acquire the land many years ago it was Don Luigi Verzè, founder of the San Raffaele, who died at the end of 2011, the horrible year for his creature, with the outbreak of the economic crisis of the health complex and the start of a series of events including suicide in his office of Mario Cal, his right hand man.

From there came the liquidation and the descent into the field of the Neocatechumenals, who participated in the auction and won it:

What will be the destination of the land, now in the hands of the Neo Catecumenal Way, a world movement founded by Kiko Arguello, and which last August 2018 saw tens of thousands of adherents meet at the Circus Maximus with the presence of Pope Francis?

The place is not only at the center of the Christian tradition: since 1967 it is part of the muncipality of Jerusalem but before the war of the Six Days it was Jordanian territory, therefore anyway a politically sensitive area. And it is also from the religious point of view: on the slopes of the Mount, up to the ground, it insists the largest Jewish cemetery in the world.

News From RMS in Galilee

GALILEE – On Friday, February 15, 2019, in the Church of the Twelve Apostles and seventy-two Disciples of the Domus Galilaeae, on the Mount of the Beatitudes, the Patriarchal Vicar for Israel Fr. Hanna Kildani presided over the ceremony of the Admissio ad Ordines of five seminarians of the Missionary Seminary Redemptoris Mater of Galilee: Giovanni Bovi, David Sotgiu, Kacper Jurczyk, Michel El Khouri, Pedro Figueroa.

Some relatives of the candidates were present at the event, the Neo-catechumenal communities in which the candidates complete their permanent Christian formation, as also the team of the leaders of the Neo-catechumenal Way in Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates, seminarians, formators, and brothers in mission.

The celebration was introduced briefly by Fr. Rino Rossi, director of the Domus Galilaeae, who, returning from meeting with the Pope in Panama in recent days, and the subsequent vocational call made by the founder of the Neo-catechumenal Way Kiko Argüello, he wished to express his gratitude to the Lord for the generosity shown by many brothers to offer their lives for the priesthood and evangelization. “Today, said Fr Rino, we have the confirmation of this gift desired by the Holy Spirit, because five young men of this seminary ask to be admitted to orders and thirteen seminarians have been ordained presbyters and, soon, another will be in June.”

The Rector of the Seminary, Fr. Francesco Voltaggio, presented to the Vicar the five candidates and the various realities present in the gathering, underlining the important role that families and communities have had in the formation of the five young men.

Fr. Hanna Kildani, during the homily, addressed touching words to the five seminarians and to all the faithful, saying that each one, even before creation, was thought of and loved by the Lord. To adhere to the project that God has thought for everyone, Fr. Hanna emphasized that we need a formative journey during which it becomes possible to accept God’s call, as did the Virgin Mary announcing her “yes” to the will of the Father ( Lk 1: 26-38). It is also necessary to have the courage of Peter who, despite his weakness, said he was ready to give his life for the Lord (Jn 13:37) and not fear as the rich young man had before the invitation to follow him ( Mt 19:16-22). It is also necessary to fight to defend one’s call as Jeremiah (Jer. 20) and to be available as Isaiah (Is 5:6-8) and not fear to employ the talents that God has given, without hiding them (Mt 25:14-30).

Citing the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy (2Tim 2:13), the Patriarchal Vicar affirmed that God is faithful and does not deny Himself to those who invoke Him; he wished to encourage those present to offer their lives to God, sure of His help.

He also expressed his gratitude to the Lord for the help and support that the Neo-Catechumenal communities of the five seminarians gave to their formation, thus contributing to the life of the Church.

At the end of the celebration there was a big fiesta with music and a rich banquet, prepared by the brothers of the communities: the event ended in an atmosphere of great joy and sharing.

Pope Francis' 21 Points

Pope Francis offered a 21-point plan to combat sexual abuse by members of the clergy during a Church summit at the Vatican.  You can find his 21-point plan here.  My opinions are in black:

1.  To prepare a practical handbook indicating the steps to be taken by authorities at key moments when a case emerges.

2.  To equip oneself with listening structures that include trained and expert people who can initially discern the cases of the alleged victims.

3.  Establish the criteria for the direct involvement of the Bishop or of the Religious Superior.

4.  Implement shared procedures for the examination of the charges, the protection of the victims and the right of defence of the accused.  

5.  Inform the civil authorities and the higher ecclesiastical authorities in compliance with civil and canonical norms.

6.  Make a periodic review of protocols and norms to safeguard a protected environment for minors in all pastoral structures: protocols and norms based on the integrated principles of justice and charity so that the action of the Church in this matter is in conformity with her mission.

This is already being done.  The Church has already implemented protocols and norms to safeguard minors.  

7.  Establish specific protocols for handling accusations against Bishops.

8.  Accompany, protect and treat victims, offering them all the necessary support for a complete recovery.

9.  Increase awareness of the causes and consequences of sexual abuse through ongoing formation initiatives of Bishops, Religious Superiors, clerics and pastoral workers.

10. Prepare pathways of pastoral care for communities injured by abuses and penitential and recovery routes for the perpetrators.

11. To consolidate the collaboration with all people of good will and with the operators of mass media in order to recognize and discern real cases from false ones and accusations of slander, avoiding rancour and insinuations, rumours and defamation (cf. Pope Francis’ address to the Roman Curia, 21 December 2018).

Exactly.  I am in agreement with this.  

12. To raise the minimum age for marriage to sixteen years.

Personally, I believe it should be 18, but I'm not the authority.

13. Establish provisions that regulate and facilitate the participation of lay experts in investigations and in the different degrees of judgment of canonical processes concerning sexual and / or power abuse.

14. The right to defence: the principle of natural and canon law of presumption of innocence must also be safeguarded until the guilt of the accused is proven. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the lists of the accused being published, even by the dioceses, before the preliminary investigation and the definitive condemnation.

Thank you, Pope Francis.  "Innocence until proven guilty" should always be safeguarded for it is an important democratic principle.  Without it, one can easily go into a witch hunt.

15.  Observe the traditional principle of proportionality of punishment with respect to the crime committed. To decide that priests and bishops guilty of sexual abuse of minors leave the public ministry.

16. Introduce rules concerning seminarians and candidates for the priesthood or religious life. Be sure that there are programs of initial and ongoing formation to help them develop their human, spiritual and psychosexual maturity, as well as their interpersonal relationships and their behaviour.

17. Be sure to have psychological evaluations by qualified and accredited experts for candidates for the priesthood and consecrated life.

18. Establish norms governing the transfer of a seminarian or religious aspirant from one seminary to another; as well as a priest or religious from one diocese or congregation to another.

19. Formulate mandatory codes of conduct for all clerics, religious, service personnel and volunteers to outline appropriate boundaries in personal relationships. Be specific about the necessary requirements for staff and volunteers and check their criminal record.

20. Explain all information and data on the dangers of abuse and its effects, how to recognize signs of abuse and how to report suspected sexual abuse. All this must take place in collaboration with parents, teachers, professionals and civil authorities.

21. Where it has not yet been in place, establish a group easily accessible for victims who want to report any crimes. Such an organization should have a certain autonomy with respect to the local ecclesiastical authority and include expert persons (clerics and laity) who know how to express the Church's attention to those who have been offended by improper attitudes on the part of clerics.

Discovering the Way with St. John Paul II

Father Neil Xavier O'Donoghue was in Guam several times, and he made the news.  You can find the news report in the Irish Catholic:

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Dr Neil Xavier O'Donoghue meeting Pope Francis.

Chai Brady speaks to a renowned Catholic academic about his life and Faith

 “Do not be afraid to be holy” was then Pope John Paul II’s message to pilgrims during World Youth Day in 1989, and that struck a chord with a young man soon to enter seminary.

Dr Neil Xavier O’Donoghue, now a lecturer of Systematic Theology in St Patrick’s College in Maynooth, was “impressed” by what St John Paul II said.

“That was his refrain there, and to see that Christianity was an option to me, I see that a vocation is a vocation to Christianity not to the priesthood per say. The main vocation is to Holiness, within that you have to discern what it is, and I discerned that it was a vocation to the priesthood,” he said.

However, this wasn’t the only thing that helped him on his Faith journey.

Serious

Growing up in Ballincollig, Co. Cork, the eldest of two brothers and a sister, Dr Neil became more serious about his Faith after his teenage years.

“I suppose it was at the World Youth Day in Santiago Del Compostela, which was just after my Leaving Cert before starting in UCC. During that year I was discerning and I saw the vocation more clearly at the end of that year,” he said.

He joined the Neocatechumenal Way, a charism in the Church dedicated to Christian formation. After that pilgrimage in Spain with the group’s youth community and the then Pope’s message, he had a vocational meeting.

His US adventure began when he was chosen at random to go to New Jersey. “I was 18 at the time, it was an adventure it was no problem. At the time I didn’t know which side of the US New Jersey was on, but I was up for it,” he said.

Dr Neil spent 10 years as a seminarian in the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Newark. Five of those years were spent as a missionary in Atlanta, Miami and Washington DC.

Seminarians

It was in 2013 that Cardinal Brady asked his bishop in the US, Archbishop John Myers at the time, to borrow him to help establish the new Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Dundalk and “get it off the ground”. He had already taught seminarians in the US for 11 years and went on to spend five years teaching seminarians in Dundalk.

Archbishop Myers agreed and it was back home for Dr Neil who served there as Vice Rector of the seminary of the Archdiocese of Armagh and as a curate in a number of parishes in Dundalk and south Armagh.

Discussing the differences between working as a priest in Ireland and the US he said that ultimately there was very few.

“People are more or less the same on one level, on another level I think the Church is a bit different in the States because it is bigger so you have more room for variety whereas here you have a one size fits all reality. In the States different parishes have a difference emphasis, they have that advantage over us I suppose,” he said.

Dr Neil then decided to move into academics after a discussion with his archbishop, Cardinal Joseph Tobin CSsR of Newark.

He said: “I’m settling into the job here I’ve written a lot about the Church in early Ireland, about the way the Eucharist was celebrated. My doctorate was in the Eucharist in pre-Norman Ireland and so I’ve done some work on that and on liturgical renewal in general.”

Teaching systematic theology, he says the ultimate question within students is whether the Good News is real.

“That’s the ultimate question, is all this real? That is the question that each students has to answer for themselves above and beyond the actual mechanics of getting a degree in theology,” he said.

Dr Neil also writes a monthly column for the Messenger of St Anthony where he focuses on the theology of the Pope.

Speaking about the topic he found most interesting related to his writings on the Pope he said: “I suppose it would be his emphasis on forgiveness which would be the most important one with Pope Francis, I suppose the power of Confession is a big deal with him.

He also does some blogging on praytellblog.com, which is sponsored by the Benedictine Abbey of Collegeville and is the author of several books.

Congratulations to Jose Santos

Once again, a former RMS seminarian from Guam have been ordained into the priesthood. Father Jose Santos who worked in the Asan parish for a long time has been ordained a priest in Mexico.  Some of the brothers in the Asan community were present during his ordination.  Father Jose could have been ordained a priest in Guam for Guam, but this turns out to be another loss for Guam.  Congratulations to Father Jose Santos.  

  

The Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report

The following article was written by Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas in These Stone Walls, which you can find here.

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The Pennsylvania grand jury report is misleading and had an agenda. One observer noted, “This report should not have been on a news channel, but on the History Channel.”

Some readers found my article, “PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro in ‘The Reckoning’” to be explosive. If true, it deals with a subject that needs to be exploded instead of exploited. The truth is that you have not been told the truth in that now infamous Pennsylvania grand jury report. At the end of my article I suggested some further reading. I also promised that this week on These Stone Walls a prestigious guest will offer the most compelling challenge of all to the distortions you and your Church have been subjected to.

It is a great honor this week to present this analysis by Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas, one of America’s foremost theologians and Catholic editors. Father Stravinskas presents a riveting and highly revealing analysis of the Pennsylvania report conducted by the Philadelphia law firm of Roca Rothberger Christie, LLP. His summary is the most concise and compelling of all the commentary I have read in these troubled days of persecution.

Father Peter M.J. Stravinskas is the founder of The Catholic Answer and is currently Publisher and Editor of the superb bimonthly journal, The Catholic Response. He earned a B.A. in Classical Languages, Masters degrees in both School Administration and Biblical Theology, a Doctor of Philosophy in School Administration from Fordham University, and both a Licentiate and Doctor of Sacred Theology from the Marianum in Rome and the Marian Institute of the University of Dayton.

I am so pleased to present this guest post by Father Stravinskas. His conclusion is that we must not be silent in the face of persecution. Please share this post with others.

DUC IN ALTUM: PUT OUT INTO THE DEEP

On August 14, the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, released the findings of a grand jury investigation into cases of alleged sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy in six dioceses of the Commonwealth (the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was not included since it had undergone a similar review earlier). It was the report “heard ‘round the world.” Most people do not realize that a grand jury report is just that – a report, which provides details of allegations and accusations, which may or may not be true, which may or may not be prosecutable. In addition to the sensationalistic and prurient language of the report, it was released by Shapiro in such a way as to suggest that these accusations were all verifiable crimes and that they were current events. As one commentator put it, this report should not have been on a news channel but on the history channel.

At the time of the report’s release, in various articles and in interviews, I asked why the dioceses of Pennsylvania had not gotten out ahead of its formal presentation (since they knew it was coming and likewise knew that it would lack balance and accuracy). Somewhat belatedly, but thankfully, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia contracted the services of the law firm Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP to provide a professional analysis of the report. Below you will find my redaction of that analysis (shortened for space considerations), but providing its principal findings. After reading that, I would invite you to move down to some concerns and suggestions I offer for the Church in the United States (and beyond) to consider about how to proceed with further reform (yes, much reform has already occurred – although you would never know that from the way the issue is handled by the secular media).

Statistical Analysis of Information Contained in the
August 14, 2018, Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report

In order to properly understand the import of the Grand Jury Report (the “Report”) and what the Report says about the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, it is necessary to understand its allegations in the proper factual context. To help supply this context, this document provides a statistical analysis of the Report and provides relevant information about other studies of child sexual abuse.

At the outset, it is important to note that the Report, while lengthy, is frequently vague and lacking in detail. For purposes of this statistical analysis, this document focuses on factual information related to 680 separate allegations of abuse over an 84-year period (1934 to the present). The details surrounding the remaining victims identified in the Report are so deficient (including critical facts like dates of the alleged abuse) that they could not be included in this analysis. In addition, in light of due process concerns acknowledged by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Report was released in redacted form.

The following facts are significant:

• The Report has not identified any priests with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of minors who are still in active ministry. While the status of several priests named in the Report remains unknown, based on follow-up reports from various dioceses, we have only been able to identify three priests accused of sexual abuse in the report who remain in ministry. These three priests are from the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and they are listed by the Diocese as people who have been accused of sexual abuse, but the allegations were not substantiated.
• Of the 680 alleged victims whose claims were tied to specific years, only 23 claim they were abused after the USCCB adopted the Charter for the Protection Children and Young People in 2002 (the “Charter”).
• The average year each alleged incident of abuse in the Report ended was 1979. Stated differently, the average incident of abuse alleged in the Report is now 39 years old.
• Much of the information in the Report has been publicly known for years.
• Of the 301 priests identified in the report as having allegedly sexually abused a minor, 140 are now deceased.
• Many of the alleged incidents of abuse occurred many decades ago. For instance, the Report references a victim alleging he was abused in the 1930s. The victim first reported the alleged abuse in 2008 when the victim was 80 years old. The accused priest was born in 1892 (the year Grover Cleveland was elected President) and was ordained in 1922. The priest was long deceased when the allegations against him were first reported.
• It is important to note that the Report includes all allegations of abuse the government found in the course of its two-year investigation, including many allegations that the Report recognized as not credible. While the media has generally claimed that all of the allegations in the Report were proven true, other reports of child abuse or child sexual abuse regularly report that only a subset of allegations are found to be substantiated:
• The 2004 John Jay report, which covered a similar time frame as the Report (1950-2002), stated that out of 10,667 alleged incidents of sexual abuse of youths, only 4,570 (less than half) were deemed substantiated.
• The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services only substantiated 10% of the 44,000 statewide reports of child abuse received in 2016. Of the 2,602 reports of child abuse in child care settings, only 7% were substantiated.
• In 2017, state authorities substantiated only 18 of the 280 (6.4%) reports of abuse filed against Philadelphia school employees.
• While the Attorney General acknowledged that child sexual abuse is a broad societal problem (expressly including schools, physicians’ offices, and public officials), and claiming an interest in eradicating child sexual abuse throughout society, Shapiro did not ask all victims of abuse to come forward. Instead, he only encouraged those who had been sexually abused by a Catholic priest to contact the “Clergy Abuse Hotline” his office has established.
• This myopic focus on abuse within the Catholic Church stands in the face of the available data, which shows overwhelmingly that the sexual abuse of minors is a much bigger problem outside the Church. This is true within Pennsylvania and nationally.

PENNSYLVANIA COMPARISONS:

• Since 2002, more than 600 school teachers in non-Catholic schools in Pennsylvania have been disciplined in connection with abuse or otherwise inappropriate behavior with children. This includes more than 50 school teachers in 2018 alone.
• In 2016, the year the Grand Jury began its investigation, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services identified 3,078 substantiated allegations of sexual abuse during the calendar year. This is more than three times the number of total allegations against the Catholic Church (substantiated and unsubstantiated) identified by the Grand Jury over an eighty-year time span.
• The same year, Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offenders Assessment Board received 1,195 founded or indicated reports on 940 perpetrators, an 11.5% increase over 2015.

NATIONAL COMPARISONS:

• What is true in Pennsylvania is also true on a national level. Evidence shows that sexual abuse of minors is a huge epidemic that touches every major institution in society. Further, by all accounts, few institutions have done as much as the Catholic Church to learn from past failures and take steps to prevent abuse going forward.
• Nationally, 24.7% of women and 16% of men experienced sexual abuse during their childhood.
• 33% of those who sexually abuse minors are the victim’s parents; 58% are an acquaintance of the victim; 4% are strangers.
• Over twenty years, at least 368 gymnasts accused their USA Gymnastics coaches of sexual assault. Two former USA Gymnastics officials admitted under oath that the organization “routinely dismissed sexual abuse allegations as hearsay unless they came directly from a victim or victim’s parent.” USA Gymnastics “acknowledged in court records that it seldom, if ever, forwarded allegations of child abuse to police or child protective services without being asked.”
• Between 1971 and 1990, 1,151 Boy Scouts reported being sexually abused by their leaders. Over the same time-span, 416 Scout leaders were either arrested or banned from Scouting for sexual abuse of Scouts. Experts believe that the real number of abusers and victims was probably several times higher.
• Insurance companies receive around 260 reports per year of sexual abuse of a minor in U.S. Protestant churches. This annual number is more than the total accusations against Catholic clergy since 2005.
• Nearly one in ten public school students suffers sexual harassment, rape, or sexual abuse at the hands of a public school teacher.
• 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a public school employee from 1991 to 2000. By contrast, the first John Jay study found 10,677 allegations of abuse against priests and deacons over a much longer time-frame, 1950 to 2002. Based on these numbers, the study’s author said that “the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”
• By way of contrast, in 2017 the USCCB’s independent auditor found only 24 allegations that current minors were sexually abused, only six of which were substantiated by the close of the audit cycle.

Having an objective review of that most damaging grand jury report, we should be able to come to some conclusions and a plan of action.

While we must condemn any sexual abuse of vulnerable people by clergy (or anyone else), a few points need to be made. First, since 2002, it is fair to say that the safest place for a child to be is in any Catholic institution – and the statistics bear this out. In this regard, see the excellent article published on December 2nd by The Media Report which notes, among other statistics, that in less than three months, the Chicago Public Schools office has received over 600 allegations of sexual abuse. Now, in fairness, an allegation is just that. However, even if we take half that number, we are left with a monthly average of 100 abuse allegations in just a single public school system (see “Sex Abuse in Chicago Schools”).

Indeed, the Church could offer valuable counsel to all kinds of organizations on how to protect minors from sexual predators. Second, it is patently unfair to accuse Church officials of “coverup” due to confidentiality agreements. In point of fact, when an out-of-court settlement is reached, a confidentiality agreement is standard procedure. Readers of TCR will recall that I have consistently opposed out-of-court settlements for a variety of reasons, however, if that route is taken by a victim’s legal team, then one should not balk at it years later.

Presently, attention is focused on episcopal accountability. In 2002, when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops promulgated the so-called “Dallas Charter,” a notable absence
from the Charter’s sanctions was the bishop. That lacuna is now being addressed, both in terms of episcopal sinful and criminal activity and episcopal nonfeasance (that is, failure to deal with
abuse problems according to the norms of both civil and canon law).

Suggestions (and demands!) have come from all quarters. Some of these have been very thoughtful and helpful. Some have been well-intentioned but misguided. Some who have advanced remedies have a distinctly anti-clerical and even anti-Catholic bias; they are not reformers but revolutionaries, out for red meat. We need to remember that revolutions never end well. Anger and a hidden agenda spell doom for any possible good that could emerge.

“Off with all their heads!” is neither human nor Christian. That mentality has caused not a few innocent priests to be unfairly tried in the court of public opinion since 2002; regrettably, very few bishops have come to their defense out of fear of bad press. Now, some of those same people are coming after the bishops, predictably. One of the “reforms” put forward is that oversight of accusations of clerical abuse (whether by priests or bishops) be handed over to civil authorities. Is this something we really want? Let’s consider the prospects for justice.

– As you should have seen from the very detailed analysis of the Pennsylvania grand jury report above, the goal was not justice; slander, scandal and defamation were. Interestingly, that same Attorney General has now shown his hand completely by filing a challenge to President Trump’s final religious exemption rules, which guarantee freedom of conscience. Shapiro also continues his legal harassment of the Little Sisters of the Poor.

– In every jurisdiction where the statute of limitations has been rolled back, the only entity to come under the gun has been the Catholic Church. Jurisprudence has valued the statute of limitations for centuries for very good reasons. If, however, it is revoked or set aside for a period of time, why is that window of opportunity for litigation not extended to all potential institutions harboring abusers, starting with the public schools?

– The unbelievably biased procedures against Cardinal George Pell in Australia, violative of all principles of fairness and transparency, give new meaning to “kangaroo court.” Such judicial behavior has not been limited to “the Land down Under”; we have had numerous examples of it here in the United States. As Arthur Schlesinger asserted, “Anti-Catholicism is the deepest-held bias in the history of the American people.”

If society-at-large and legislative bodies, along with judiciaries, were truly concerned with the welfare of minors, their laser would not be exclusively focused on the Catholic Church. The real goal, of course, is to discredit the Church’s moral standing since hers is nearly the only voice raised in the culture wars – speaking out in opposition to abortion, same-sex unions, euthanasia, and further drifts into secularization.

A well-regarded motto urges: “Ecclesia semper reformanda” (The Church is always in need of reform). Reform, not revolution. Luther’s initial challenges were for reform; he and his movement descended into the realm of revolution, throwing out the baby with the bath water. Genuine reform must be grounded in a true love for the Church and in rational proposals that take all dimensions of a problem into account. Lay review boards for clerical abuse have functioned very well for the past seventeen years; a variation on that theme for episcopal accountability should do as well. St. Thomas à Becket, St. John Fisher, Cardinal Mindszenty and Cardinal Stepinac didn’t do very well at the hands of civil authorities. We need to learn from history, lest we repeat its mistakes.

Most of you good readers are not blogging your discontent; you are too busy leading a Gospel-inspired life. When the Church is unfairly targeted (unfairly, not fairly), you need to raise your voice in her defense. You should also give strong support to good priests and bishops (who are in the majority). Last but not least, you must pray for the purification of the Church in her head and members – a painful but necessary process that must take place in every age. If you do these things, you will duc in altum.

Father Peter M. J. Stravinskas
Editor and Publisher

From Cardinal Sean's Blog

Cardinal O'Malley celebrated Mass with pilgrims from Boston before the vigil with the Holy Father in Panama City. Pilot photo/CardinalSeansBlog.org

From Cardinal Sean's Blog

As I left off last week, the Holy Father was just arriving in Panama to attend World Youth Day.

Of course, there were a number of events connected to his welcoming and arrival, and the Holy Father's talks, particularly on Friday, were beautiful.

There were about 30 American bishops with us in Panama and, as I mentioned last week, the U.S. had the largest delegation of any single nation at World Youth Day, except, of course, for Panama.

The theme was "Be It Done to Me According to Thy Word," and they even had rubber wrist bracelets with that phrase on them.

Mass with pilgrims from Boston

On Saturday morning, before the vigil with the Holy Father, I gathered with all the pilgrims from Boston attending World Youth Day at the Church of Our Lady of Carmen, a beautiful Carmelite church in the center of Panama City.

In addition to the group traveling with the archdiocesan pilgrimage, there were parish groups from Revere, Lowell, Marlborough, East Boston, and the cathedral, who are part of the Neocatechumenal Way, the LifeTeen Group from Hanover and Norwell, and a group from the Brazilian community at St. Tarcisius Parish in Framingham.

There were about 200 pilgrims from Boston with us at the Mass -- more than I had been expecting.

Meeting with Pope Francis

On Saturday afternoon, we gathered with the Holy Father at Metropark. We were blessed with the weather because, although it was hot, we had no rain.

The vigil on Saturday evening was impressive. There were a number of testimonies given by individual young people about their faith. There was also a testimony of a family, who spoke about their daughter who has Down syndrome.

There were several musical numbers and then the Holy Father gave a talk, which was followed by adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

It was inspiring to see hundreds of thousands of young people in complete silence during the adoration.

Then, throughout the night, they had concerts and prayers.

Our pilgrims from Boston stayed overnight on the site, though we bishops headed back into the city until about 3:00 a.m., when we headed out again to attend the Sunday morning Mass.

There was a crowd of about 700,000 people for the Mass. The music and the participation were, as always, very moving.

At the Mass, they had relics of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was one of the patrons of this World Youth Day.

At the Mass, I met the pastor of Easter Island, Father Bernardo, who sought me out. He himself is a member of the native peoples of Easter Island, the Rapanui, and told me he is the only Rapanui priest in his archdiocese.

He introduced me to one of his Rapanui parishioners who was with him, as well.

They gave me a necklace and a flag because they knew that Easter Island was my first assignment and they are still waiting for me to come and be the assistant pastor there.

As we concluded, the Holy Father made the announcement that the next World Youth Day will be held in Lisbon, Portugal.

There were a number of Portuguese there, including the patriarch of Lisbon and the head of the Portuguese bishops' conference.

I spoke to the patriarch, and he told me that there is great excitement in Portugal over hosting World Youth Day in 2022. He told me that one of the ideas he has is to reach out to the Portuguese speaking countries in Africa and, hopefully, bring many young people from that part of the world. They also have a close relationship with Cape Verde and Brazil.

The presence of Fatima also makes Portugal an attractive location for World Youth Day.

Scottish Pilgrims in Panama

More stories from the World Youth Day in Panama are coming in.  The next world youth day was also announced in Panama....Portugal.  The following article can be found here.
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The Glasgow pilgrims who beat the odds to see the Pope in Panama

Trio from Scotland travelled 7,000 miles via Spain and Costa Rica to reach World Youth Day

A trio of young pilgrims from Scotland who beat the odds to see Pope Francis in Panama have said World Youth Day made them feel less alone and helped them ‘recharge’ their Faith, as they returned to Glasgow.

No Scottish diocesan or national pilgrimage groups were organised this year to World Youth Day, which brings together young Catholics from across the globe every three years, and it was thought that Scotland was unrepresented at the gathering.

However, the trio from St Thomas in Riddrie, Glasgow, would not be beaten in their goal to attend and financed their own journey by selling almost 4,000 candles in churches and reaching out to a group who were travelling from Portugal.

Through December and January, they raised £4,000, covering more than half of the £2,000 cost each of their 7,000-mile journey from Glasgow to Madrid, Costa Rica and over the border into Panama.

Neocatechumenal

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Panama City from January 22-27. Among them were Madalena Fonseca, 21, Louise Swan, 21, and David Sanchez, 19. All three are part of the Neocatechumenal Way, a Catholic movement with around 100 members in Scotland.

Madalena came to Scotland from Portugal 10 years ago, David arrived from Spain four years ago after his father was asked to evangelise here by the movement, and Louise was born into the Way after her father was introduced to it by the woman he would later marry.

After putting out a call to friends in the movement, Madalena—who has been to World Youth Days in Madrid, Rio and Krakow along with Louise—managed to secure a space on the Portuguese pilgrimage.

Serendipitously, Portugal would later be announced as the venue for the 2022 World Youth Day, meaning the three pilgrims from Scotland were given a prime spot on the stage with Pope Francis during Mass.

Madalena studies optometry at ­Glasgow Caledonian University, David sports and coaching at the City of Glasgow College and Louise is enrolled in French and Spanish at Glasgow University.

Despite busy university schedules and exams, they took time out because ‘World Youth Day was more ­important,’ they said.

Faith recharged

David said WYD helps young ­people ‘recharge their Faith.’

“I say it’s like a battery of a phone. In Poland [for World youth Day 2016] it was 100 per cent, then after three years I was running out of battery and I needed to recharge it.”

He said the vigil Mass in Panama was an incredible moment. “I spoke to everybody that night, from all over the world,” he said. “From Canada, America, Columbia.

“When I went to [World Youth Day] my Faith wasn’t the best, but I could feel Him there, and that filled me up and I can now evangelise again.

“When the Pope was talking about Mary saying ‘yes’ to God, it reminded me of my situation when I had to come [to Scotland]. I felt like the Pope was inviting me to evangelise—and when I get back to college I’m thinking about telling them all what happened.”

Madalena said WYD was a ‘powerful’ experience.

“[The Pope] said some times young people can feel invisible and for me in my life I feel that a lot. You can feel very isolated here in your little life and nobody else believes and then you go to WYD and see all these people who believe the same as you. It’s incredible.”

She added that she hopes to spread what she learned at WYD back in Scotland.

“In my head I say, ‘yes, I’ll do the work of God,’ but when it comes time to act, it’s hard. It’s scary when you come back because you feel like you are in a bubble there, that everything is perfect, and then you come back home to reality. So it can be very hard to give witness to my Faith. But this pilgrimage was a very strong invitation to not be scared because God will be with us. I received so much at WYD that I’d feel very selfish if I keep it all to myself.”

Louise, who also attends St Joseph’s in Clarkston, took a Saltire with her on the trip, and proudly wore it at the various papal events—although she says many of the international pilgrims did not, unfortunately, recognise it.

She said that her Faith gives meaning to her life, and that joining the thousands of young people from across the world gave her hope.

“In Scotland it’s quite easy to feel alone, especially as a young person. Even in a church it can be quite empty. Most of my friends are not Catholic or if they were they don’t go to Mass and no longer believe in God. It’s very hard to be seen as different, and almost put yourself at risk to be mocked or not have any friends—which I know wouldn’t happen, but it is a fear.

“So it’s good to see other young people in the same situation with the same problems as you. It made me feel less isolated. Maybe that’s a problem—that we don’t interact with the youth enough in Scotland in the Church.”

The Neocatechumenal Way was formed in Madrid in 1964 by Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández. In Scotland, they provide catechesis, with groups meeting during the week and for Mass on Saturdays.

Madalena said the Way helps her find answers to life and deepen her Faith. “You participate—you’re invited to share what you’ve learned,” she said describing the movement. “You’re not just there sitting down and filling a chair—you are there because you are giving your life.”

And she encouraged other young people to follow the trio’s lead and attend the next World Youth Day. “It’s not impossible—we took 30 people with us to Brazil, again by selling candles, and its funny how people remember us,” she said. “It is possible if you really do desire to go. Go to World Youth Day—it gives you the strength to carry on.”