Monday, 7 July 2014
The scene
where Peter sees Jesus emerge after a terrible interrogation… Peter whose eyes
meet the gaze of Jesus and weeps… This scene comes to my mind as I look at you,
and think of so many men and women, boys and girls. I feel the gaze of Jesus
and I ask for the grace to weep, the grace for the Church to weep and make
reparation for her sons and daughters who betrayed their mission, who abused
innocent persons. Today, I am very grateful to you for having travelled so far
to come here.
For some time
now I have felt in my heart deep pain and suffering. So much time hidden,
camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained until someone realized
that Jesus was looking and others the same… and they set about to sustain that
gaze.
And those few
who began to weep have touched our conscience for this crime and grave sin.
This is what causes me distress and pain at the fact that some priests and
bishops, by sexually abusing minors, violated their innocence and their own
priestly vocation. It is something more than despicable actions. It is like a
sacrilegious cult, because these boys and girls had been entrusted to the
priestly charism in order to be brought to God. And those people sacrificed
them to the idol of their own concupiscence. They profane the very image of God
in whose likeness we were created. Childhood, as we all know, young hearts, so
open and trusting, have their own way of understanding the mysteries of God’s
love and are eager to grow in the faith. Today the heart of the Church looks
into the eyes of Jesus in these boys and girls and wants to weep; she asks the
grace to weep before the execrable acts of abuse which have left life long
scars.
I know that
these wounds are a source of deep and often unrelenting emotional and spiritual
pain, and even despair. Many of those who have suffered in this way have also
sought relief in the path of addiction. Others have experienced difficulties in
significant relationships, with parents, spouses and children. Suffering in
families has been especially grave, since the damage provoked by abuse affects
these vital family relationships.
Some have even
had to deal with the terrible tragedy of the death of a loved one by suicide.
The deaths of these so beloved children of God weigh upon the heart and my
conscience and that of the whole Church. To these families I express my
heartfelt love and sorrow. Jesus, tortured and interrogated with passionate
hatred, is taken to another place and he looks out. He looks out upon one of
his own torturers, the one who denied him, and he makes him weep. Let us
implore this grace together with that of making amends.
Sins of
clerical sexual abuse against minors have a toxic effect on faith and hope in
God. Some of you have held fast to faith, while for others the experience of betrayal
and abandonment has led to a weakening of faith in God. Your presence here
speaks of the miracle of hope, which prevails against the deepest darkness.
Surely it is a sign of God’s mercy that today we have this opportunity to
encounter one another, to adore God, to look in one another’s eyes and seek the
grace of reconciliation.
Before God and
his people I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual
abuse committed against you. And I humbly ask forgiveness.
I beg your
forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of Church leaders who
did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well
as by abuse victims themselves. This led to even greater suffering on the part
of those who were abused and it endangered other minors who were at risk.
On the other
hand, the courage that you and others have shown by speaking up, by telling the
truth, was a service of love, since for us it shed light on a terrible darkness
in the life of the Church. There is no place in the Church’s ministry for those
who commit these abuses, and I commit myself not to tolerate harm done to a
minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not. All bishops must carry out
their pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the
protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.
What Jesus
says about those who cause scandal applies to all of us: the millstone and the
sea (cf. Mt 18:6).
By the same
token we will continue to exercise vigilance in priestly formation. I am
counting on the members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of
Minors, all minors, whatever religion they belong to, they are little flowers
which God looks lovingly upon.
I ask this
support so as to help me ensure that we develop better policies and procedures
in the universal Church for the protection of minors and for the training of
church personnel in implementing those policies and procedures. We need to do
everything in our power to ensure that these sins have no place in the Church.
Dear brothers
and sisters, because we are all members of God’s family, we are called to live
lives shaped by mercy. The Lord Jesus, our Savior, is the supreme example of
this; though innocent, he took our sins upon himself on the cross. To be
reconciled is the very essence of our shared identity as followers of Jesus
Christ. By turning back to him, accompanied by our most holy Mother, who stood
sorrowing at the foot of the cross, let us seek the grace of reconciliation
with the entire people of God. The loving intercession of Our Lady of Tender
Mercy is an unfailing source of help in the process of our healing.
You and all
those who were abused by clergy are loved by God. I pray that the remnants of
the darkness which touched you may be healed by the embrace of the Child Jesus
and that the harm which was done to you will give way to renewed faith and joy.
I am grateful
for this meeting. And please pray for me, so that the eyes of my heart will
always clearly see the path of merciful love, and that God will grant me the
courage to persevere on this path for the good of all children and young
people. Jesus comes forth from an unjust trial, from a cruel interrogation and
he looks in the eyes of Peter, and Peter weeps. We ask that he look at us and
that we allow ourselves to be looked upon and to weep and that he give us the
grace to be ashamed, so that, like Peter, forty days later, we can reply: “You
know that I love you”; and hear him say: “go back and feed my sheep” – and I
would add – “let no wolf enter the sheepfold”.
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