Dear Friends,
Since 1990, our country has marked National Child Protection Week as a way of addressing issues of abuse and offering support to victims. This is not a new reality but one that has affected many institutions in society, including the Church. In the late 1990s, the Church in Australia began work on formal, professional standards protocols that reflected Gospel values of justice, love and common sense in everyday ministry and work.
The magnitude of the issue of abuse across the world, both in the Church and wider society, has forced us to face our sinful failures, most dramatically in Australia with the Royal Commission and its findings. Much has changed in the last 20 years but some Catholics still experience unease in relation to the Church, despite the many apologies issued over recent years and Pope Francis’ commitment of the Church to ‘zero tolerance’ when it comes to clerical, sexual abuse.
Since 1940, the Australian Bishops have issued Social Justice Statements, some of which shock us in their frankness about our human condition and the many ways in which our well-being is compromised. Topics include Justice for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Affluence and Poverty, Economic Issues, Challenges of our Digital World, Mental Health, and most recently a very challenging document on Domestic Violence and Abuse, called ‘Respect’.
Invariably, the documents focus on contemporary, social issues, many of which relate to people’s personal safety and well-being, a theme often repeated in Papal documents such as Fratelli Tutti (2020) which calls for ‘an acknowledgement of the worth of every human person, always and everywhere’ (n 106). Pope Francis emphasises that, ‘Every human being has the right to live with dignity and to develop integrally… a dignity based not on circumstances but on the intrinsic worth of their being’ (n 107).
With such wise guidance and teaching over many years, our world and our Church should be growing in goodness and respect for human dignity – certainly our experience in many areas. Members of the Church’s recent Plenary Council expressed ‘profound sorrow that children and young people and vulnerable adults have been abused by clergy, religious and lay workers of the Catholic Church, and that religious leaders have failed to act sufficiently to prevent or respond to abuse.’
Every child has the right to feel safe and to grow into a mature adult without the scars of abuse or violence. The preciousness of every person is emphasised in this Sunday’s readings, particularly the Gospel which recounts the classic parables of the shepherd searching for the lost sheep and the patient father waiting for his lost son to return.
Their attentiveness is a wake-up call for each of us and reminds us of our special responsibility to be attentive to those who have been abused in the Church, either as children or in later life. Jesus often uses the familiar image of ‘being at home’ with him and with his Father. The very least any of us can expect is to be able to find a home in Christ’s Church and the healing we may need – certainly an ongoing and delicate challenge today.