Listening to the survivors of priestly abuse speak of their experiences at The Royal Commission of Enquiry into state and faith-based care facilities revealed the raw, traumatic and lifelong consequences.
It made for humiliating and shameful listening.
Could Cardinal John Dew and Marist Provincial Fr Tim Duckworth S.M. have done more than say sorry? Is offering a general sweeping apology adequate?
It was insensitive for these two national Catholic leaders to hide behind the confessional, stating that in their 40 years each, they hadn’t had anyone who’d confessed to sexual abuse. They came mighty close to breaching the Sacrament itself.
In August 2021, Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern, in formally apologizing for the dawn raids in Auckland in 1974 and 1976, participated in the Ifoga, a Samoan custom asking for forgiveness. And she wasn’t even born then! A fine woven mat was placed over her, enabling her in this darkness to reflect on the huge impact these raids had on families.
It was a gesture of deep sorrow appealing for forgiveness.
Pope Francis, in 2019 after inviting the South Sudan leaders to the Vatican, stooped down and kissed their feet, pleading with them for the killings to stop in that country.
Could Cardinal John and Fr Tim offer to these survivors a reconciliatory event, and in a genuine spirit of remorse, become vulnerable in their humility and kiss their feet, begging for their forgiveness on behalf of the whole Catholic Church in New Zealand?
The Royal Commission was the place for survivors to tell their stories of abuse, but not the right environment for both priests to lay down the sincerest form of regrets.
On Monday, 31st October 2022, I wrote jointly to Cardinal John and Fr Tim, putting this suggestion to them to seriously consider.
Pope Paul’s VI apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi – on Evangelization in the Modern World, refers at the very start in Article 2 to the need to evangelize oneself first……Put on the new self and be reconciled to God, it reads.
Again, in Pope Francis’ exhortation Evangelii Gaudium – the Joy of the Gospel, and again, at the beginning of Article 2, he calls us to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
Our efforts in the ministry of evangelization begin with oneself.
We can’t evangelize if we ourselves haven’t been evangelized first. Owning our collective shadow – the sin of abusing another – is the starting point.
As Catholic people, it’s time now to visibly express our remorse and enter the process of seeking their forgiveness.
By Sue Seconi, The Catholic Parish of Whanganui – Te Parihi Katorika ki Whanganui
Next Item – Kotahi Ano Pastoral Vision