The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Catholic bishops to pray over clergy sexual abuse scandal
Focus is prayer and spiritual reflection, not making policy.
DETROIT — U.S.-based Roman Catholic bishops gathered Wednesday for a weeklong retreat near Chicago on the church sexual abuse scandal that organizers say will focus on prayer and spiritual reflection, not formulating policy.
The retreat began a day after The Associated Press reported the Vatican blocked U.S. bishops from taking measures last year to address the scandal because U.S. church leaders didn’t discuss the legally problematic proposals with the Holy See enough beforehand.
The rebuke from Rome was contained in a letter from a Vatican official before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met in November. The move stunned abuse survivors and some other Catholics demanding actions.
The retreat also is a prelude to a summit of the world’s bishops at the Vatican next month to forge a comprehensive response to the crisis that has lashed the church.
The meetings follow two blistering reports during 2018 from state attorneys general — in Illinois and Pennsylvania — alleging negligence by state church leaders.
Agenda
This is about prayer, not policymaking, organizers say.
According to the Archdiocese of Chicago spokeswoman Anne Maselli, bishops gathering at the Mundelein Seminary will be praying, fasting and participating in spiritual lectures. And they will be alone: No staff members, other priests or members of the public or media are invited. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a news release that they are convening “to pray on the intense matters before us.”
The Catholic seminary at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, 40 miles north of Chicago, is the largest of its kind in the U.S. and home to roughly 200 seminarians from about 40 dioceses across the country and globe.
Main players
Pope Francis has dispatched Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the official papal preacher, to lead the retreat. And it’s no accident that it’s being held in Chicago, long considered a center of American Catholicism. The hosting Chicago archbishop, Cardinal Blase Cupich, was Francis’ first major U.S. appointment and was picked by the pope to help organize the Vatican summit.
Cupich, who is considered a moderate, was the lead signatory on a recent letter to bishops around the world warning that a failure to deal with abuse now will jeopardize the church’s mission globally. It also urged summit attendees to meet with clergy sexual abuse victims “to learn firsthand the suffering they have endured.”
Cupich issued a statement expressing regret for “our failures to address the scourge of clerical sexual abuse,” after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s report in December alleging that the church had failed to disclose the names of at least 500 clergy members in the state accused of sexually abusing children.
A Pennsylvania grand jury report early last year alleged that hundreds of priests abused at least 1,000 children over seven decades in that state.
Goals
Potentially a good deal, according to Notre Dame researcher and teacher Timothy O’Malley. He says one of Francis’ biggest concerns has been that the bishops experience a spiritual renewal — and “a spirit of penance” — along with regulations governing their behavior.