SEXUAL ABUSE AND CLERICALISM (FRANCIS)
Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis to the People of God
What
is the letter about?
"the suffering endured by many minors due to
sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a
significant number of clerics and consecrated persons"
Francis
sees that abuse has inflicted pain not only upon victims by also their families,
and the larger community of believers, and non believers. Francis
powerfully identifies the cry of the victims with the Magnificat:
"The Lord heard that cry and once again showed
us on which side he stands. Mary’s song is not mistaken and continues quietly
to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise he made to our
fathers: “he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the
mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry
with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:51-53).
What
should be our response?
"A solidarity that summons us to fight all
forms of corruption, especially spiritual corruption. The latter is “a
comfortable and self-satisfied form of blindness. Everything then appears
acceptable: deception, slander, egotism and other subtle forms of
self-centeredness, for ‘even Satan disguises himself as an angel of
light’"
Who
should respond?
"every
one of the baptized should feel involved in the ecclesial and social change
that we so greatly need. This change calls for a personal and communal
conversion that makes us see things as the Lord does."
"It is impossible to think of a conversion of
our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation of all
the members of God’s People. Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or
silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up
creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and
structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and
ultimately, without lives."
The
problem of clericalism that feeds the abuse of power.
"This is clearly seen in a peculiar way of
understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where
sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred. Such is the
case with clericalism, an approach that “not only nullifies the character of
Christians, but also tends to diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace that
the Holy Spirit has placed in the heart of our people”.
"Clericalism, whether fostered by priests
themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that
supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning
today."
The
bottom line.
"TO SAY 'NO' TO ABUSE IS TO DAY AN EMPHATIC 'NO' TO ALL FORMS OF CLERICALISM."
Other Related Readings from Pope Francis
"Church is not, nor will it ever be, an élite of
consecrated men and women, priests, and bishops.
Clericalism is the lack of consciousness of
belonging to God’s people as servants, and not masters.
Mission belongs to the entire Church, and not to the
individual priest or bishop,
Let us be clear about this. The laypersons are not
our peons, or our employees. They don’t have to parrot back whatever we say.
Clericalism gradually extinguishes the prophetic
flame to which the entire Church is called to bear witness. Implore from the
Holy Spirit the gift of dreaming and working for a missionary and prophetic
option capable of transforming everything, so that our customs, ways of doing
things, times and schedules, language and ecclesial structures can be suitably
channeled for evangelization rather than for ecclesiastical self-preservation.’
Let us not be afraid to strip ourselves of
everything that separates us from the missionary mandate."
"We cannot reflect on the theme of the laity
while ignoring one of the greatest distortions that Latin America has to
confront — and to which I ask you to devote special attention — clericalism.
This approach not only nullifies the character of Christians, but also tends to
diminish and undervalue the baptismal grace that the Holy Spirit has placed in
the heart of our people
It means finding a way to be able to encourage,
accompany and inspire all attempts and efforts that are being made today in
order to keep hope and faith alive in a world full of contradictions,
especially for the poor, especially with the poorest.
It is not the pastor to tell lay people what they
must do and say, they know this better than we do. It is not the pastor to
establish what the faithful must say in various settings.
Often we have given in to the temptation of thinking
that committed lay people are those dedicated to the works of the Church and/or
the matters of the parish or the diocese, and we have reflected little on how
to accompany baptized people in their public and daily life; on how in their
daily activities, with the responsibilities they have, they are committed as
Christians in public life.
Without realizing it, we have generated a lay elite,
believing that committed lay people are only those who work in the matters “of
priests”, and we have forgotten, overlooked, the believers who very often burn
out their hope in the daily struggle to live the faith. These are the
situations that clericalism fails to notice, because it is more concerned with
dominating spaces than with generating initiatives. Therefore we must recognize
that lay people — through their reality, through their identity, for they are
immersed in the heart of social, public and political life, participate in
cultural forms that are constantly generated — need new forms of organization
and of celebration of the faith.
We cannot give general directives in order to
organize the People of God within its public life. Inculturation is a process
that we pastors are called to inspire, encouraging people to live their faith
where and with whom they are. Inculturation is the work of artisans and not of
a factory with a production line dedicated to “manufacturing Christian worlds
or spaces”.