This article is an adamant one: sex abuse within our Catholic Church.
This last week I have been reading about another tragic situation within the Diocese of Pittsburg. It is utterly sickening to learn again about the abuse of children, high school students and even seminarians by men in authority positions. It also crushed my heart to determine that one of these abusers was a cardinal/bishop. Disgusting.
We must continue to pray for every person who has been sexually abused by a priest (not all, not most, but some), as well as bishops (again, not all, not most, but some). I hope that we can provide and support each victim through our prayers, our treasure, our compassion and our following God’s will and justice, especially for victims. \
People in leadership with these abusive acts within our Catholic Church is undoubtedly evil. When a cardinal, bishop, priest or deacon uses his authority to abuse, or even turns an eye from another brother’s exploitation to any child or anyone else within God’s flock, must be called out and receive the justice for the victim.
Our Catholic Church in our country, and around the world, must “clean our house” to be purified in our war against evil and egregious sinful acts that are truly brutal to our brothers and sisters.
While most of these sad events were many years ago, we must avoid any bad apples within leadership circles in our Church. We must always get better to serve in the best practical and professional jobs to serve God’s Kingdom, and we have received many opportunities in our Diocese of Duluth—our police, psychologists, committees and leadership within our Safe Environment—and hope to prevent these harmful actions.
I want you, parents, to know that everyone who works with your children—myself, our employees, and even volunteers—must complete our strict Diocesan Safe Environment process, as well as a background check from our civil authorities before they can serve your children and this is repeated. If any individual does not conclude this process, they will not serve your children.
Finally, if you have been abused, whether within our parishes, our school, our diocese, or any other occasions within our public society, please call the police. Personally, I am proud of our police, as they have been trained well to keep all of us safe, especially your children which I am writing about today. (I am grateful that our police are across the street from our parish and school in International Falls!).
As I have mentioned before, God is in charge of this place. And Jesus still reminds me, and hopefully to you in all headship positions today, “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”
Pray for the victims. Pray for our priests who are genuinely seeking holiness in their vocation to walk and serve you, well. Pray for even our “enemies” which Jesus himself taught.
God Bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment