The Healing Task Ahead

The Rev. J. Bryan Hehir spoke at Gonzaga University last night. The former head of Catholic Charities USA and former head of Harvard Divinity School now seems to be doing about a half dozen jobs for the Boston Archdiocese. He covered a range of topics, but I was most fascinated with his take on the priest sex abuse scandal.

He said, "Sins were committed against the most vulnerable. The sins were crimes. These sins and crimes were against children."

Hehir said, "The healing task will be with us for generations." Church members must rebuild pastoral trust and public credibility. He said the church cannot just recognize the mistakes and forge ahead. "This is spin." Nor can the church retreat in silence. Instead, all church members must bear "modest witness."

He said, "In all that we say and do, we must carry a modesty. When you speak, convey that you carry a sense of the burden of the past two years."

Hehir said the positive acts of social justice can form a bridge to the healing. "We don't say if you are Catholic and hungry, we will feed you. We say if you are hungry, we will feed you."

He believes the church has the capacity to rebuild trust, but it will take "multiple actors" and it will be done "brick by brick."

Hehir also pointed out something I'd never thought of before. Catholics have an "institutional instinct." In other words, Catholics "lay their hands on life" through institutions, such as hospitals, soup kitchens, universities. This is a good instinct with a fine tradition, Hehir said.

But I wondered later if that institutional instinct also allowed abusing priests to hide so long in institutions that protected them.

All in all Hehir's talk was thought-provoking and filled with hope. About the abuse scandal, Hehir believes that "all that is to be known is already known." He believes the media has moved on and "I don't think the New York Times will run 35 stories on it in 2004."

I agree with his take on the New York Times, but I'm afraid he might be too optimistic that "all that is to be known is already known."

We'll see...

Priest Shortage

The Catholic Diocese of Spokane is starting a capital campaign to raise money for a new seminary for new priests. I am hoping to do some sort of column on it soon and will blog some of my research along the way.

So how bad is the priest shortage? That was my first question. Answer: Pretty bad. According to an article in Notre Dame magazine "currently, fewer than 4,000 men are enrolled in seminaries in the United States. The replacement rate is about 40 new priests for every 100 who die or resign. Since the social turbulence of the 1970s, ordinations have been falling 7 percent per decade."

Even the U.S. Labor Department is onto the shortage, in one of the surprises found in my research. The Labor Deparment report said "the shortage of Roman Catholic priests is expected to continue, resulting in a very favorable job outlook through the year 2010. Many priests will be needed in the years ahead to provide for the spiritual, educational, and social needs of the increasing number of Catholics. In recent years, the number of ordained priests has been insufficient to fill the needs of newly established parishes and other Catholic institutions and to replace priests who retire, die, or leave the priesthood. This situation is likely to continue, as seminary enrollments remain below the levels needed to overcome the current shortfall of priests."

To be continued.

Voice of the Faithful: Pro and Con

Voice of the Faithful is a relatively new national group of Roman Catholics who came together in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. On its Web site, it says: "If, like tens of thousands of other faithful Catholics throughout the world, you agree with our Mission and Goals, please join us as we work within the Church to develop a voice for 'The People of God.'"

I've found dozens of articles written about the group. It seems to be a love them or hate them kind of situation. The negative articles are very negative. The positive very positive.

In Crisis magazine, writer Danny DeBruin deems VOTF a radical organization of dissent. See complete article. A National Catholic Reporter commentary worries about what it calls VOTF's anti-bishop bias.

On the pro side, many Catholics see it as a breath of fresh air, a new way to look at church issues. In an interesting article about the founding of the group, co-founder Jim Muller says, "The sex abuse was a symptom of a disease, which is an underlying system of absolute power and no accountability by the Church hierarchy."

The group's Web site also links to some of the more positive articles. Example here. As we journey to Vatican III, I predict VOTF will grow more influential, so it's a good idea to be as informed as possible about the group.

Mark Your Calendars

Catholicism for a New Millennium is a committee, made up mostly of Gonzaga University professors, who bring speakers -- of the progressive Catholic kind -- to campus. (Disclosure: I'm also a member of the committee.)

The GU profs are the ones with the great contacts, though, and the lineup of speakers for the spring is impressive, my bias notwithstanding. Here's the schedule. All events are free and open to the public.

Thursday Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m. Fr. J. Bryan Hehir. Topic: "How can the church witness for social justice?" Location: GU Law School.

Monday Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m. Clare Nolan. Topic: "Trafficking in Women and Children: A Challenge for the Church." Location: GU Law School.

Thursday March 4, 7:30 p.m. Fr. Thomas Massaro, S.J. Topic: "Welfare Reform: A War on Poverty or the Poor?" Location: GU Law School.

Tuesday March 25, 7:30 p.m. Elizabeth Johnson. Topic: "Our Sister Mary: A Feminist/Theological Reading." Location: Cataldo Dining Hall on GU campus.

Monday April 19, 7:30 p.m. Peter Steinfels. "The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America." Location: Cataldo Dining Room.

Moral Loneliness

Back from a week off. It was bitter cold in Spokane during my break. A friend, Toni Robideaux, died during the cold time, after a brave and creative life, despite chronic illness. It was dark when we woke. Dark in the early afternoon.

There was a loneliness all around. Another friend, Mary Ann Heskett, just happened to send me during this time a wonderful article by Ron Rolheiser, a Canadian priest who writes life-changing books. My favorite: Holy Longing.

In the midst of the sex-abuse scandal, it has often been forgotten how many priests are doing life-altering work through their writing and speaking and social justice. The article titled "The Moral Loneliness of Jesus" ran in the Inland Register Dec. 4.

Rolheiser's words captured exactly that winter-cold loneliness at the core of human beings.

He writes: "What's moral loneliness? What it suggests is that inside each of us there's a place, a deep center, where all that's tender, sacred, cherished and precious is kept and guarded. It's also in this place, more than any other, that we fear lies, harshness, disrespect, being shamed, ridiculed or violated. We're most vulnerable there, so we're scrupulously careful as to whom we admit into this moral center."

So back to work. Back to January, when the winter quiet and cold sometimes allow a different access to this place of moral loneliness. All for the good.