Fr. John Unni • Culture Change in the Church

I don't know about you but this past week I was so busy and I was doing all these things so it kind of kept things at bay for a little bit and then as soon as I began to slow down and really think about the more I began to read and and see these excerpts on the news and look at quotes and read facts these are not allegations these are not possibilities when I begin to read facts which we have all been doing I'm assuming this week that same kind of rush of feelings came over me but I'm a little bit more clear and how I'm feeling I'm exhausted it's a mental exhaustion a little dramatic but I'm really tired my mind is tired with this stuff plus we had a flood of biblical proportions last week downstairs the place is a mess I mean it's just unbelievable we hired these beautiful new staff to come in Oh lovely lovely parish it you're gonna be part of it and it's just a show of shows going on here right but you know what I keep saying so kind of first worldly type problem do you don't I mean like what it's not tired exhausted I feel depressed my spirit feels depressed it is not elated none of Oz is and as I put out my stuff I want you to connect with your stuff to whatever you might be experiencing huh I'm angry and my anger is not this self I hope to god it's not this self-righteous anger because I make mistakes I have made mistakes in judgment in leadership or lack of in saying the wrong thing or not saying something when I should have in a million again I'm assuming we all have to varying degrees but when it becomes a systematized way of dealing especially with the most egregious of acts with the most vulnerable in our midst in its decade upon decade and I'm gonna say it's century upon century its millennium upon millennium my friend Danny Ryan used to say about different things Padre if there's one most there's a teen and that's just in the house huh this has been going on and on and on and the anger comes from knowing that when people make mistakes instead of helping people if one is in a position of leadership to look at that and correct the mistake and then move on because that's what Jesus always did he met people in their mistakes their sins he went to the margins but he never said okay and patted us on the head and said no problem let's go to another parish or go pray about that for a little bit and income he said you know look at your you look at your stuff look at what's going on in you look at your sin be honest with yourself and then come on get back up and go in a new way maybe idealistic in naive but that wasn't happening with our church leaders again I don't stand up here as Ricky self-righteous but I am naming it as to how I'm feeling it in how I'm assuming we're all feeling and then the other feeling I had and this is my own stuff maybe some of it's from being a priest I feel shame I didn't do it I feel a collective sense of shame for us as a church maybe being a priest knowing you guys since your little kids parents have an inherent trust in me look around right you know what goes through my head what do people think it hasn't been in this place for 16 years it feels like it was we kind of not not weather that storm but we've just got to a place where this hopefully good leadership healthy respectable capable leadership in the church from the top on down and we're moving forward huh for the first time in 16 years is kind of ridiculous when I was outside after funeral this week and I was walking two blocks my own neighborhood my own parish where you know Phil there's a respectability I was so self-conscious walking that distance my issue but it's shame what do people think and instead of running from it it's like just stay right in it stay in that prayer you just stay right there and you feel that and you experience that what that's like and I wondered about how many kids or people who have been abused in life certainly by priests or bishops on seniors nuns parents coaches teachers aunts uncles doctors gymnastics coaches fill in the blanks and I wonder what shame people feel I don't know too many people who go through life after having the experience of being sexually abused who they don't they don't limp through life in some way or another and you Reese lit read and listen to the stories of addiction and depression and you know what they say the proverbial vay they say that shame is the root of all addiction and I wondered about that why does it have that power shame all the many different addictions there are substances are behaviors that shame my shame what I'm feeling this week is nothing compared to the shame of those who've been abused so I just want to read the cardinal's letter and then say a couple of thoughts afterwards he says there are times when words fail us when they don't capture the depth of overwhelming situations that we sometimes face in life and for the church in the United States this is one of those times the Pennsylvania grand juries report and the first-hand expressions of horror and devastating pain experienced by survivors once again wrench our hearts with the unimaginable that tragically is all too real for those who carry this pain once again we hear each excruciating word that they share and we remain shamed by these egregious failures to protect children to protect those who are vulnerable and to affirm our commitment that these failures will never be repeated and yes while many perpetrators have been held accountable in one way or another for their crimes he says we have yet to establish clear and transparent systems of accountability and consequence for church leadership whose failures have allowed these crimes to occur and reoccur the church must embrace spiritual conversion and demand legal transparency pastoral accountability for all who carry out its mission but this transformation is not easily achieved but in all aspects it is imperative and I'm going to talk about this in a second he says the way we prepare priests the way we exercise pastoral leadership and the way that we cooperate with civil authorities all of these have to be consistently better than has been the case as I've stated previously there are immediate actions that we can and must take the clock is ticking for all of us in church leadership Catholics in fact so many people have lost patience with us civil society has lost confidence in us but I am not without hope and I do not succumb to despondent acceptance that these our failures cannot be corrected as the church we have the responsibility to help people not to lose hope that was Jesus's message to all those to whom he ministered especially in times of great trial there's too much good in the church and in our faith to lose hope and oftentimes it's survivors who courageously teach us that we can't lose hope and all those zero tolerance of sexual abuse has been declared and pursued and programs of advocacy and protection of children have been adopted in diocese throughout the country the experience the memory the record and the burden carried by survivors and every other fact of sexual abuse stay with them and with the church we can never become complacent this is a lifelong ongoing work that demands the highest levels of constant awareness and attention the crisis we face is the product of clerical sins clerical failures and as a church the conversion the transparency and accountability that we need is only possible with the significant involvement in leadership of lay women and men in our church individuals who can bring their competence their experience and their skill to this task that we face we need the help of the laity to address this scourge on our people and on the church and if the church proceeds with deep recognition of these realities the future can hold the opportunity to possibly earn back trust confidence and support from the community of Catholics from our society and he ends by saying we must proceed quickly and with purpose there is no time to waste there's a final paragraph to all those who have experienced sexual abuse especially from clergy it says two survivors in the archdiocese who struggle to process their pain and whose wounds are opened especially wide once again with these reports from Pennsylvania know that the director of the archdiocese and office of pastoral support and Child Protection Vivian Soper and her colleagues are here ready to provide assistance there's a phone number he says to the survivors into the loved ones we must again apologize and ask forgiveness and even though much has been accomplished in the protection of children with the participation of the laity there remains much more to be done we are committed to the fulfillment of this responsibility as a continuing priority for the work of our church I would say we need to look at what those next steps are after the apologies what are the concrete steps that are going to be taken in leadership regarding accountability and then regarding something that I find even more challenging and that is a culture change culture changes in companies and families churches are difficult in that first reading proverbs wisdom and we need wisdom here we need wisdom in our leadership says wisdom has built her house let whoever is simple turn in here a lot of very simple and vulnerable people turned to the church church leadership should be simple not simplistic but we should meet people where they're at not take advantage and then that last line says forsake foolishness that you may live in advance in the way of understanding I don't have the answer but now is the time for us as a church in fact it has been to forsake foolishness to move beyond apology and asking forgiveness and to advance in the way of understanding that's wisdom again I don't have the way well the answer but that is the way that we need to move collectively that's the way we need our leadership to move forward with this issue and then in Ephesians watch carefully how you live do not continue in ignorant in unknowing saying we don't know when knowing all the while we don't know how to deal with this there's such shame here that we don't know how to bring it into the light it's a clear and clarion call from scriptures that are 2,000 years old speaking to us today so here are my thoughts on a culture change I was thinking about my own seminary formation it's 24 years old undergrad a couple years afterwards teaching high school landscaping in a relationship feel the tug at the hot had been trying to kick it out for a long time no thanks good don't call me I'll call you but the Hound of heaven was there so at some point you say I got a look at this and looking at it meant landing the plane you don't just jump out of a relationship okay see you later bye and the next day show up at the seminary door knocking wondering all the while am i doing the right thing feeling pulled in both directions relationship intimacy love friendship family generativity all those things feeling this this tug this pull this alluring attraction to a relationship with God with Jesus that I saw as a priest and so at some point when that plane got landed made that decision and went into the seminary it was a time to look is this real or is it not am i running from something is it authentic is it the right choice there's no voice that comes down and says you're doing the right thing keep going in this right way you have to pay attention to hawk you have to you have to discern it you have to talk with people you have to listen to other people huh the two issues of sexuality and celibacy oftentimes don't get talked about in fact more often they don't get talked about and they get pushed down and then they find themselves coming out in all kinds of different ways I do not remember healthy conversations about sexuality and celibacy I don't believe we had courses that really gave us out in a healthy way to look at it and so everybody's kind of left to figure it out on our own nobody's talked to really celibacy is not something just to be poured on and put on like a robe right sexuality has to be integrated it's an ongoing thing and only then can we begin to look at celibacy the criminal acts that were perpetrated upon these over 1,000 kids by over 300 priests they do and can make people lose hope but we don't want to lose hope the fact that you're here today's shows me and all of us that we are filled with hope even in the midst of this leaders who protected the institution above kids and the vulnerable they make people lose hope but don't listen to this coal from the grand jury the bishops weren't just aware of what was going on they were immersed in it and they went to great lengths to keep it secret and the secrecy helped spread the disease the report said and so if you have been abused as difficult and challenging as it may be to let another person know calling that Holy Spirit to help you to tell someone that you trust secrecy just keeps things under the cover of shame and does not allow things to be brought out into the light and lastly try not to lose faith or lose hope in the bread of life the one who knows what it is to suffer as we do the common sense things and as we call leadership to accountability keep that prayer that conversation that listening going as we do the things we need to do to protect to hold accountable and bring to light that which needs to come out let us watch carefully how we live let us not continue in ignorance let's forsake foolishness and advance in understanding as we look at these issues you

Channel: Saint Cecilia Parish

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Length: 22min 16sec (1336 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 05 2018