A
Spiritual Remedy For the Damage Done to the Roman Catholic Church by
the Sexual Abuse Scandal
Proposed by the Preacher to Benedict
XVI's Household
It Is Summarily Refuted In These Pages
A Guest Document
by Lee Penn
Originally published in December 2006
INTRODUCTION
On December 15, 2006, Fr. Cantalamessa (the preacher to Benedict XVI’s
household) proposed a Church-wide day of penance for the clerical sex
abuse scandal. Mr. Lee Penn has prepared, at our request, a
comprehensive commentary addressing Rev. Cantalamessa's spiritual
remedy to "...the abominations committed in her womb by some of her own
ministers and shepherds."
Although the comprehensive commentary is essentially what Mr. Penn
submitted to us, miguel de Portugal, echoes his evaluation and
recommendations.
NOTE Added on
July 22, 2022
“Cantalamessa
was appointed the Preacher to the Papal Household by Pope
John Paul II in 1980 and has been
confirmed in this position by Popes Benedict XVI and
Francis.
In this capacity, he provides meditations to the Pope and other
high-ranking officials each Friday during Lent and Advent, and is
"the only person allowed to preach to the Pope."
Pope Francis, who had hoped to make a visit in person,
and the bishops of the United States, had chosen Cantalamessa as the preacher, homilist, and spiritual
director for their retreat, at Mundelein Seminary to deal with the
2017–2019 sex abuse and concealment crisis in the US Catholic Church. ... Pope Francis raised him to the
rank of cardinal on 28 November 2020.” (Source)
DETAILS
NOTE:
The format used will the be quoting Cantalamessa and Associated Press
texts
in italics followed by a
commentary from Mr. Penn. The Links to the full text of Cantalamessa’s
sermon as well as the story by Associated Press may be found at the end
of
this Document (1)(2).
Quote, from the Associated
Press
story:
“Pope
Benedict XVI’s personal priest asked the pontiff on Friday to declare a
day of fasting and penance to express the Roman Catholic Church’s
solidarity with the victims of clerical sex abuse. In a strongly worded
lecture, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa denounced the ‘abominations’
committed inside the church ‘by its own ministers and pastors’ and
declared that the church has ‘paid a high price for this.’ ‘The moment
has come, after the emergency, to do the most important thing of all:
to cry before God,’ said Cantalamessa, in a pre-Christmas talk
delivered in a Vatican chapel. The pope was in the audience. …
Cantalamessa suggested that the church ‘indicate a day of fasting and
penance, at local and national level, where the problem was
particularly strong, to publicly express repentance before God and
solidarity with the victims’.”
In his sermon, Cantalamessa
said:
“The
Church has ‘wept and sighed’ in recent times for the abominations
committed in her womb by some of her own ministers and shepherds. She
has paid a high price for this. She has sought to repair the damage.
Strict rules have been laid down so that these abuses do not happen
again. The moment has come, after the emergency, to do that which is
the most important: to weep before God, to do penance, as God himself
has been abused; to do penance for the offense against the body of
Christ and the scandalizing of the ‘least of his brothers,’ more than
for the damage and dishonor that has been brought upon us.”
Nevertheless, Cardinal Bernard Law (3) remains in his cushy
Roman
retirement post as Archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major – and
he still has the honors of the Episcopacy and the Cardinalship. Other
bishops and cardinals continue the Scandal coverup and the worldly
efforts at damage control. Priestly perpetrators continue to evade
justice, in the US and worldwide. We are not in a time “after the
emergency;” contrary to Fr. Cantalamessa, the Scandal continues.
Cantalamessa added:
“One
day when I was preaching to the clergy of a diocese that suffered much
because of these things, I was struck by a thought. These brothers of
ours have been stripped of everything, ministry, honor, freedom, and
only God knows with what effective moral responsibility in individual
cases; they have become the last, the rejected.… If in this situation,
touched by grace, they do penance for the evil caused, they unite their
weeping to that of the Church, then the blessedness of those who mourn
and weep could become their blessedness. They could be close to Christ
who is the friend of the last, more than others, me included, rich with
their own respectability and perhaps led, like the Pharisees, to judge
those who make mistakes. There is something, however, that these
brothers must absolutely avoid doing but which some, unfortunately, are
attempting to do: profiting from the clamor to take advantage even of
their own guilt, giving interviews, writing memoirs, in an attempt to
put the guilt on their superiors and the ecclesial community. This
would reveal a truly dangerous hardness of heart.”
The preacher to Benedict XVI thus shows how far we are from the end of
the Scandal. Some of the perpetrators have been caught – but many have
not. Many abusers have evaded jail because Church authorities
stonewalled release of documents until statutes of limitations had run
out. The actions of the abusers are not “mistakes;” they are grave
crimes. And while Cantalamessa rightly warns the abusers not to profit
financially from their own crimes by “writing memoirs,” he seems also
to be warning them not to blow the whistle on “their superiors and the
ecclesial community.” In his sermon, Cantalamessa says next to nothing
about the bishops and cardinals who magnified this evil by covering for
the abusers. If this shows what the leadership of the Vatican has
learned since the American scandal broke forth in early 2002, then
Cantalamessa shows that they are still in denial about the extent and
depth of the evil in the Church.
Advocates for abuse survivors have replied that words and gestures can
go only so far; action must accompany words of contrition.
Quote, from the Associated
Press
story:
“‘Decisive
action protects kids, not nice gestures,’ Barbara Blaine, national
president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in
a statement. ‘We’d much rather the pope discipline complicit bishops
instead, because that’s what is just, appropriate and effective’.
Blaine alleged that hundreds of bishops have covered up thousands of
sex crimes. Mary Pat Fox, president of Voice of the Faithful, a lay
U.S. Catholic reform group created in response to the molestation
scandal, said the comments were a hopeful sign that Vatican leaders
were beginning to understand the depth of the crisis. However, Fox said
church officials should go further by punishing bishops who sheltered
guilty clergy.”
I agree fully with what the leaders of the Survivors Network and Voice
of the Faithful said in this case.
Words of penance mean little without
amendment of life and reparation. As the Apostle James said,
“...a
man is justified by works and not by faith alone...” [James 2:24]
As God told the people of ancient Israel through the Prophet Amos,
“I
hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn
assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal
offerings, I will not accept them … take away from me the noise of your
songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice
roll down like the waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing
stream.” [Amos 5:21-24]
God told the people of ancient Judah through the Prophet Isaiah,
“Bring
no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and
Sabbath and the calling of assemblies – I cannot endure iniquity and
solemn assembly. … When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my
eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the
fatherless, plead for the widow.” [Isaiah 1:13-17]
Only with deeds of justice will the words of penance be made effective.
RECOMMENDED
ACTION
For the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church to repent of their part in
the Scandal, they have to back their words with deeds. Ideas for such
deeds, actions that would “correct oppression” and “defend the
fatherless,” come to mind:
1. Send Cardinal Law away from his
Roman basilica, and back to a monastery to live in penance and humble
service.
2. Take away his red hat, and degrade him from the episcopacy.
3. Do the same to all cardinals and bishops whose malfeasance abetted
the clerical pederasts and molesters.
4. Direct, with all the disciplinary powers available to the Pope, the
bishops and heads of religious orders, that fugitive molester religious
and priests turn themselves in to civil authorities.
5. Suppress religious orders where pederasty (and other forms of
molestation and abuse) are rife.
6. Suppress seminaries where the same conditions prevail.
7. Give a canonical trial to Fr. Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries
of Christ. If he’s found guilty, state that verdict publicly – with the
reasons for the judgment – and impose canonical penalties on him, so
that the Legionaries cannot claim (as they do now) that their founder
is innocent but persecuted. (4)
8. Formally investigate all “new ecclesial movements” – including Opus
Dei – for sexual and emotional and physical abuse, recognizing that
insular cults often foster such aberrations.
9. Release the names of all clergy and religious who are guilty of
molestation and abuse. Name the dead perpetrators, too. Name all the
bishops and cardinals, living and dead, who knowingly shuffled
perpetrators from assignment to assignment. Name all those who are
guilty, regardless of civil or canonical statutes of limitation.
The victims of abuse are serving life sentences of shame, despair, and
distrust as a result of the treason of the clerics; publicly naming the
guilty will assist them in recovery. No longer will any one of them
think that they were the only victim of Father Pervert; no longer will
their associates accuse them of “making it all up.”
10. Dioceses and religious orders should move on their own to settle
civil suits, and to release victims from confidentiality agreements
that stifle the victims’ ability to speak openly of what happened to
them.
11. Dioceses and religious orders should stop using egregious legal
defenses, such as claiming that the victims or their families were at
fault for allowing the abuse to occur. Just because certain defense
tactics are lawful does not mean that they ought to be used –
especially by an organization that claims to be the Body of Christ on
Earth. In all cases, the church bodies and the hierarchs – not just the
lawyers and insurance companies – are responsible for what they do in
court.
12. Dioceses and religious orders should stop lobbying against legal
reforms – such as extending statutes of limitations and mandatory
reporting of abuse to civil authorities – that would protect the
innocent from victimization.
13. Investigate the manner of life of clergy and religious worldwide,
with attention to reports of homosexual networks in the Western
countries, and to reports of widespread heterosexual concubinage in the
Third World. Allowing married clergy is one thing; it could be done
without any change in Church dogma. But when the Hierarchy winks at
widespread, long-term, covert sexual partnerships by its
supposedly-celibate clergy, it becomes party to massive hypocrisy, and
to the potential for abuse and neglect by the clergy of their
clandestine spouses and offspring. Furthermore, clergy and religious
enmeshed in secret partnerships are in no position to blow the whistle
upon the pederasts and other abusers among their colleagues.
I could expand this list, but the above 13 steps would, if taken,
represent real amendment of life on the part of the Hierarchy. The
guilty would receive temporal demotion, hardship, or other punishment –
and by patiently accepting such punishment, they would be offering
reparation for their sins and making it possible for themselves to
receive God’s mercy. None of the foregoing steps would change an iota
of Catholic doctrine or dogma... they would, however, weaken the
Corporation’s worldly structure and reduce its wealth.
I believe that none of the above actions will occur in the present age,
barring a miracle. These deeds, which would be “fruit that befits
repentance” (Matthew 3:8),
are unlikely – so Fr. Cantalamessa’s
suggested gesture of penance will probably prove to be empty.
Therefore, the doom pronounced by John the Baptist upon the Pharisees
and Sadducees [“Even now the axe is
laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” – Matthew 3:10]
may well come
upon the Hierarchy, its apologists, and unrepentant clerical
perpetrators.
IN
CONCLUSION
Nevertheless, there is some value to Fr. Cantalamessa’s proposal. I can
see how and why the faithful can and should offer penitential prayer
and reparation for the molesters and cover-up artists. Our prayers on
their behalf will help them to repent and be saved. Christians pray for
sinners and for our enemies [Matthew
5:44], and the graces that result from our prayers will
be applied by God wherever they are most beneficial, as God sees it.
The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, and just as the evils of the
Scandal hurt the body as a whole, penitential and intercessory prayers
from the faithful can heal the body as a whole.
Aside from our own prayers of reparation, the faithful can do several
other things to bring about a just resolution to the sex abuse scandal
– and we can do them, whatever the Hierarchy does or fails to do:
1. When possible, offer time, talent,
treasure, and prayer on behalf of groups that support abuse survivors,
such as SNAP, Linkup, Bishop Accountability, and others.
2. When the Hierarchy’s apologists blame the attorneys, the media,
liberal legislators, and other scapegoats for the Scandal and its evil
effects, do not heed their propaganda, and do not join their lobbying
efforts.
3. When a victim accuses a priest, do not automatically assume that the
alleged victim is a liar, and do not automatically assume that Fr.
Fondle – who is such a nice,
charming man, and so good
with the kids – is innocent. Reserve judgment, and let
the investigators prove or refute the allegations.
4. Accept that, if the full extent of clerical abuse is exposed and if
all the perpetrators are removed from ministry, there will be
consequences for all the laity. There will indeed be a great shortage
of priests and religious. Many parishes and schools will close. Much
will have to be paid to victims, their attorneys, and to the civil
authorities. The secular influence of the Catholic Church will decline
further. Such are the inevitable results of having unchecked corruption
of the Hierarchy, priests, and religious over decades. Just as the
guilty clerics should patiently accept their own punishments, so we the
faithful should also patiently accept the radical downsizing of the
Church’s earthly structures, to satisfy the requirements of justice for
the victims and the fulfillment of the Will of God.
NOTES
(1) The
Link to the whole text of Cantalamessa’s sermon (the original
link at Zenit.org is no longer working in 2022)
(2) The
sermon is summarized by Associated Press (also in nbcnews.com)
(the original
link at Townhall.com is no longer
working in 2022)
(3) About
Cardinal Law and About his former
residence
(4) Two stories showing that the Legionaries
remain in denial about the deeds of their founder, Fr. Maciel:
First: “Jim Fair, the U.S.
spokesman for the Legion of Christ … has
absolutely no doubt that Father Maciel is innocent of accusations that
he sexually abused seminarians decades ago. Any statements to the
contrary, he said, amount to persecution of a holy man – the kind of
persecution Jesus referred to in the Sermon on the Mount when he said,
"Blessed are those who hate and persecute you for holiness' sake; you
shall see God.” (Michelle Martin, “Legionaries stay on task despite
penance of its charismatic founder,” Our
Sunday Visitor, July 12, 2006,
Source
no longer available in 2022).
Second: “Despite the increasingly public and mounting evidence against
the Legion of Christ’s founder, the Legion of Christ continues to claim
that Fr. Maciel is completely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever,
while continuing to claim to be “obedient” to the Holy See.” (Brian
Mershon, “Someone Is Lying . . .But Is It The 100 Alleged Abuse Victims
Or Fr. Maciel?,” The Wanderer, August 10, 2006, Source no longer
available in 2022).
(5) Title image: Fr.
Cantalamessa preaching in The Vatican in January 2010 (Source)
Published on December 22, 2006
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