Message to Catholic Church: Do what Jesus would do

I wrote this piece more than 40 days and nights ago and have held it until after Lent to honor Christians’ celebration of the risen Lord. Six weeks ago I viewed a Documentary Channel piece on the centuries-long problem of Catholic priest rape and pillage of children.

A priest molested one of my best buds. I remember writing to a parish here in Palmer a few years ago about the church’s new marketing strategy to recruit back-to-the-fold “disaffected” Catholics with the subtitle “what do we have to do to bring you back?”

My response: “You can start with explaining why thousands of abusive priests (5,948 priests according to an April 11, 2011, report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) who sexually abused thousands of children and youth (15,736, including many Alaska Native and disabled children, 200 hearing-impaired children abused in a mid-west institution) were relocated to other parishes where more young boys were continually and repeatedly abused.”

My guess is that the numbers of victims are much higher. Who knows how many girls were abused? Where is the outrage? Where is the constant apology? Not a single response from the Parish board.

The Catholic Church should give up its silence, perpetually apologize and seek forgiveness from its flock.

One church sacrament is contrition or “confession” of sins. Typically, a priest will give penance in the form of prayers to be recited as part of the forgiveness-of-the-sinner process. I propose the Catholic Church penance for the abuse of children by priests be that the Homily (interpretation and meaningful application of the gospel to the real world) in every Catholic Mass begin with, “We the priests, bishops and cardinals, as stewards of the church, apologize and seek forgiveness for any and all violations of the trust you’ve invested in us as church leaders. We are sorry from the bottom of our hearts.”

This apology should be part of every homily and every Mass.

Then, let parents interpret the institutional violation of the times (i.e. church Mafioso behavior with associations to crime bosses in the 1920s and ’30s, church sex abuse, church buying-off of regimes, etc.) for their children.

I’ll never forget the pastor at my local Valley church deleting the “peace be with you” segment of Mass and not mentioning the horror of 9/11 in the Homily the first Sunday after 9/11. I lost close friends on the plane that hit Tower II. The one time I felt like I really needed community and he decided it was a good idea to delete any parts of Mass that would help us begin to heal. Unbelievable. I’m not making this up.

Let me guess, I’m the angry guy who can’t move-on, right?

I’ve retained some Catholic traditions like the Rosary and church visits, but the Catholic Church is dead in the water for most thoughtful, faith-filled, common-sense discerning believers in Christ.

In 1999, I was in Ireland and attended daily Mass with 200 regular churchgoers in a County Cork City cathedral. After the scandal hit Ireland, I visited again with only about 15 people in daily Mass attendance.

The Irish in Ireland and Boston (my hometown) are mad. The church never stepped-up, as Jesus did once in a temple when preaching. He overthrew their tables, screaming and shouting totally upset at an injustice done to his people. He was outraged.

The church’s response today? Due to valid lawsuits, many longtime parishes are closing their churches and actually leveling them. The neighborhoods are devastated, as the church was the center and hub for good works, like soup kitchens and support for the homeless.

Where’s the perpetual, literal outrage by church officials now?

A hub for promoting church dogma is Green Bay, Wisc. As a professor at the University of Wisconsin last year I’d hear daily disgust expressed by the priest radio talk show hosts that they were targets of unreasonable people for unsubstantiated claims. Really?

I remember coming home once after doing chores with my mom in the 1960s and learning from my teenage sisters that a parish pastor and fellow priest had made a “home visit” (in the absence of both parents), had tapped the liquor cabinet and had my sisters on their laps telling jokes. All I knew was that my dad was home from work about 45 minutes before he headed over to the Rectory. Wish I had his encounter with the priest-molesters on tape.

You may better understand the priest abuse scandal in Alaska by viewing “The Silence” at pbs.org.

So, Catholic Church, please answer the question, “What would Jesus do?” appropriately. Openly discuss the epidemic of abuse, own it, create healthy male mentors for our boys by collaborating with the lay-members of the church, fingerprint and support parish background checks on priests and bishops, and apologize perpetually.

Catholic Church, please overturn the proverbial tables with outrage about the injustice done to his people and do what Jesus did in Capernaum — be outraged!

Paul Maguire is a Palmer resident and former professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He is the facilitator of the Center for Creating Peaceful Neighborhoods, and advocates for eliminating bullying and fully including all people in community.

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