April 13, 2010

By Father John Clay

(Editor's note: The following commentary is taken from a sermon delivered last weekend at Saint Stanislaus Catholic Church in. St. Paul.)

I'm going to be reflecting with you this afternoon about the sexual abuse scandal in the church, which everybody's talking about and is in all the papers. As I was mulling over this through the week, I thought I can't keep all this stuff in my head, so I wrote it out. I wrote it out, I just couldn't keep it all straight.

First, I'll remember, whatever you feel is OK. I'm not going to tell you how to feel. Whatever you feel is OK. In these preliminary remarks, I'm going to talk about the effects of abuse that are huge, and the response of our church leaders, and then I'm going to talk about what we need to do.

I think a lot of times we either kind of automatically want to defend the church, some of us; on the other hand, some of us want to automatically vilify the church. And when we do this, we're not really seeking the truth. This is not my place, either to vilify the church or to defend the church, but to see what happened. I'm not going to judge the conscience of anyone, I want to look at the behaviors. Because I can't tell what's in the conscience.

It's also important to understand there's been a revolution in the understanding of sexual abuse, and our judgment about this has to be taken in context. The whole evolution of something which, back in the '50s when I was ordained, '51, was under our radar screen. There are two parts to the problem: One is the sexual abuse that happened, the other is the response of our church leaders and their accountability. And also remember, too, the victims are not only the children, the young people, but also adult people at times too. I think it's good to remember that automatic defense of our church does not really protect the church. I think the health of the church demands that we look at things very deeply and very honestly as we can, admit what is wrong and see the work we have to do to change it.

This also is my personal reflection. I'm not an expert on the matter. I have some understanding of it, but this is the way I see it. No better than that, no worse than that.

The effects of abuse are huge. They can actually ruin a person's life. I know this in a first-hand way because of the times I've had to deal with it. Often people come to me or they're sent to me because of the abuse by clergy. It's devastating. Any abuse is devastating. It makes life difficult, it louses up relationships, it causes much confusion, it often leaves a kind of a mark of "I'm no good, I'm shameful, I'm not worthy." These are terrible, terrible things. And so we have to recognize the effects. What that means too is that because these effects are so extreme, our efforts to correct it need to be extreme.

Now, about the response of our church leaders: Their initial response was to do little or nothing to protect those who were abused. There was little understanding of what this was all about, in fact the disease and the addictive factors were not recognized. It often looked like, "This is a moral issue." So what's the solution? You go to confession, confess your sin, and promise not to do it again. This is kind of inconceivable now. But that was much of the thinking that was there at that time.

It also was thought, too, as a little more understanding grew, that therapy could solve the problem by healing it. And sometimes what happened was, the priest was sent for treatment, and the treatment center would say, "You're OK now." That happened too. We want to take a look at the whole picture as best we can. But that seems very strange to us today. I mean, almost nobody would think this way now, today. But that was really very common, back then. And how much of this lack of response was due to not knowing about what this was all about? How much was to protect the reputation of the church? I can't really judge that, at all. But the bottom line is: The victims were not recognized, or helped.

 

    

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	re: Father John Clay - 'It's my hope that this crisis willjolt us into humility'
Date:	Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:30:22 +1000
From:	Sept1 <info@september12009.com>
Reply-To:	info@september12009.com
Organization:	September1
To:	kristine@ststans.org
CC:	xxxxxx,  xxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxx,  xxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxx,  xxxxxx,

Dear Fr John,

I make it a point of emailing when I read something as close to the mark as this. My congratulations on the distance you have come and the many truths you spoke of with clarity.

'It's my hope that this crisis will jolt us into humility'

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/14/clay/

I belong to a group who is not distinguished through its religious associations or beliefs even though each of us was abused at the hands of Catholic clergy. Our main focus is firstly on the safety and the protection of children, women and the vulnerable, followed by a focus on the the crimes and the criminals and the restoration due to many who have been denied their right through actions such as those that you speak of. There is a need to get this message out there among the general population as these are the areas which can be the most volatile and difficult to handle. One of many to come stories of actions today can be found in Angies story Stories like Angies are the real horror stories of today and it needs honesty such as you have put to make these necessary changes in the congregations.

We know of the poverty and the unemployment, of the blockages and restrictions through all levels of government and services provided to governments by the Catholic church simply due to the perceived need to protect the good name of the church. Many people have been forced intosuicide as a result of encountering this on one or more occasions.

We know of the barriers which keep us from accessing Catholic and other charity services, we know that we are the cracks in society that others only talk of. We know of the effects on our lives and we know of the feelings of being claimed to be mentally deranged with some of us being locked up and forcibly injected simply to keep us quiet about the abuses which had occurred to us or to others, family members and friends. We also know of the needs of our people, we know how to assist them in the immediate sense (Many are homeless and unemployable with no hope of support through current systems.) through direct financial support and a range of other support structures we have found to be helpful.

It is all very good for us to say the church should pay for this - we understand that the church as a whole has yet to meet that space in its journey of understanding so we are left to seek whatever is possible to help us set up our own international charity where we can self fund and self distribute.  We do know best what survivors need and are in need of, we manage better with them and we understand them and their needs better than any others as we are all a part of them ourselves.

I have taken the liberty to CC in some interested people in the hope that we can get a conversation going in this initial and vital area.

I look forward to a growing understanding between us.

rgds

johnB