Pope
Francis, for the first time, met with clergy sex-abuse victims in the Vatican
on July 7 and asked for their forgiveness and promised to take proper action in
future. He had a series of one-on-one meetings with six victims – two each from
Britain, Ireland and Germany.
The Pope
celebrated an early morning Mass with these three men and three women in the
chapel of Casa Santa Marta, his present residence in the Vatican, and then he
had breakfast with them, reports the National Post.
In the Mass
homily, Pope Francis said: “This is what causes me distress and pain at the
fact that some priests and bishops by sexually abusing minors, violated their
innocence and their own priestly vocation. It is something more than despicable
actions. It is like a sacrilegious cult, because these boys and girls had been
entrusted to the priestly charism in order to be brought to God. And those
people sacrificed them to the idol of their own concupiscence.”
The Pope
also asked for forgiveness, saying: “Before God and his people, I express my
sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against
you. And I humbly ask forgiveness.”
In the
homily, he continued: “I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on
the part of the Church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of
abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves. This led
to even greater suffering on the part of those who were abused and it endangered
other minors who were at work.”
We provide
below the complete homily of Pope Francis:
The English translation of Pope's homily, delivered in Spanish
The scene where Peter sees Jesus emerge after a terrible
interrogation… Peter whose eyes meet the gaze of Jesus and weeps… This
scene comes to my mind as I look at you, and think of so many men and
women, boys and girls. I feel the gaze of Jesus and I ask for the grace
to weep, the grace for the Church to weep and make reparation for her
sons and daughters who betrayed their mission, who abused innocent
persons. Today, I am very grateful to you for having travelled so far
to come here.
For some time now I have felt in my heart deep pain and
suffering. So much time hidden, camouflaged with a complicity that
cannot be explained until someone realized that Jesus was looking and
others the same… and they set about to sustain that gaze.
And those few who began to weep have touched our conscience for this
crime and grave sin. This is what causes me distress and pain at the
fact that some priests and bishops, by sexually abusing minors, violated
their innocence and their own priestly vocation. It is something more
than despicable actions. It is like a sacrilegious cult, because these
boys and girls had been entrusted to the priestly charism in order to be
brought to God. And those people sacrificed them to the idol of their
own concupiscence. They profane the very image of God in whose likeness
we were created. Childhood, as we all know, young hearts, so open and
trusting, have their own way of understanding the mysteries of God’s
love and are eager to grow in the faith. Today the heart of the Church
looks into the eyes of Jesus in these boys and girls and wants to weep;
she asks the grace to weep before the execrable acts of abuse which have
left life long scars.
I know that these wounds are a source of deep and often
unrelenting emotional and spiritual pain, and even despair. Many of
those who have suffered in this way have also sought relief in the path
of addiction. Others have experienced difficulties in significant
relationships, with parents, spouses and children. Suffering in
families has been especially grave, since the damage provoked by abuse
affects these vital family relationships.
Some have even had to deal with the terrible tragedy of the death of a
loved one by suicide. The deaths of these so beloved children of God
weigh upon the heart and my conscience and that of the whole Church. To
these families I express my heartfelt love and sorrow. Jesus, tortured
and interrogated with passionate hatred, is taken to another place and
he looks out. He looks out upon one of his own, the one who denied him,
and he makes him weep. Let us implore this grace together with that of
making amends.
Sins of clerical sexual abuse against minors have a toxic
effect on faith and hope in God. Some of you have held fast to faith,
while for others the experience of betrayal and abandonment has led to a
weakening of faith in God. Your presence here speaks of the miracle of
hope, which prevails against the deepest darkness. Surely it is a sign
of God’s mercy that today we have this opportunity to encounter one
another, to adore God, to look in one another’s eyes and seek the grace
of reconciliation.
Before God and his people I express my sorrow for the
sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you.
And I humbly ask forgiveness.
I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of
Church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made
by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves. This led to
even greater suffering on the part of those who were abused and it
endangered other minors who were at risk.
On the other hand, the courage that you and others have
shown by speaking up, by telling the truth, was a service of love, since
for us it shed light on a terrible darkness in the life of the Church.
There is no place in the Church’s ministry for those who commit these
abuses, and I commit myself not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any
individual, whether a cleric or not. All bishops must carry out their
pastoral ministry with the utmost care in order to help foster the
protection of minors, and they will be held accountable.
What Jesus says about those who cause scandal applies to all of us: the millstone and the sea (cf. Mt 18:6).
By the same token we will continue to exercise vigilance in priestly
formation. I am counting on the members of the Pontifical Commission
for the Protection of Minors, all minors, whatever religion they belong
to, they are little flowers which God looks lovingly upon.
I ask this support so as to help me ensure that we develop better
policies and procedures in the universal Church for the protection of
minors and for the training of church personnel in implementing those
policies and procedures. We need to do everything in our power to
ensure that these sins have no place in the Church.
Dear brothers and sisters, because we are all members of
God’s family, we are called to live lives shaped by mercy. The Lord
Jesus, our Savior, is the supreme example of this; though innocent, he
took our sins upon himself on the cross. To be reconciled is the very
essence of our shared identity as followers of Jesus Christ. By turning
back to him, accompanied by our most holy Mother, who stood sorrowing
at the foot of the cross, let us seek the grace of reconciliation with
the entire people of God. The loving intercession of Our Lady of Tender
Mercy is an unfailing source of help in the process of our healing.
You and all those who were abused by clergy are loved by
God. I pray that the remnants of the darkness which touched you may be
healed by the embrace of the Child Jesus and that the harm which was
done to you will give way to renewed faith and joy.
I am grateful for this meeting. And please pray for me,
so that the eyes of my heart will always clearly see the path of
merciful love, and that God will grant me the courage to persevere on
this path for the good of all children and young people. Jesus comes
forth from an unjust trial, from a cruel interrogation and he looks in
the eyes of Peter, and Peter weeps. We ask that he look at us and that
we allow ourselves to be looked upon and to weep and that he give us the
grace to be ashamed, so that, like Peter, forty days later, we can
reply: “You know that I love you”; and hear him say: “go back and feed
my sheep” – and I would add – “let no wolf enter the sheepfold.”
Source: http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/07/07/pope_francis%E2%80%99_homily_at_mass_with_sex_abuse_survivors/1102621#
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