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September 12 to September 18, 2018
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Archbishop asks abuse victims to L come forward
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STAFF REPORTER
A
N archbishop has emphasised that there must be “zero tolerance for the abuse of children by consecrated persons [and] for those who cover up the abuse of children by others”, and invited those who have been abused to come forward. In a pastoral letter addressed to the faithful of his archdiocese, Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town also called for a day of fasting and penance on September 15, the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, as a sign of solidarity with the survivors of abuse. Archbishop Brislin noted that “the wounds of the survivors who have suffered the abuse of power and of conscience at the hands of priests never fully heal”. “As Church we continue to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics and all those entrusted with caring for the most vulnerable, our children,” Archbishop Brislin said. He urged the Church to deal with the past, and strongly encouraged “those who have experienced abuse at the hands of someone in the Church...to come forward so that the Church can acknowledge the deep individual hurt caused by abuse and contribute, with humility, to the process of healing”. The archbishop immediately stressed that the law “requires that child abuse must be reported to the civil authorities. An person who is aware of such abuse is obligated to do so.” He noted that the scandals are causing a crisis of faith, but appealed to the faithful to see the crisis as one of human failure, not of faith itself. “Let us hold on to the reality that it is human failure that is at the centre of this crisis, and not our faith. Let this time of difficulty return us to the essence of our belief as embodied in the Creed, the Gospel, the Eucharist.” Quoting Pope Francis’ recent letter on abuse, Archbishop Brislin said that to overcome the crisis and “generate the necessary dynamics for sound and realistic change” must involve the participation of all the
Church’s members. In his letter, Pope Francis identified clericalism as being at the root of the crisis and appealed for the participation of all the faithful. “It is impossible to think of a conversion of our activity as a Church that does not include the active participation Archbishop Brislin of all the members of God’s People,” the pope said. “Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives,” Pope Francis said. “This is clearly seen in a peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred.” Archbishop Brislin joined the pope’s call for prayer, penance and fasting. In his letter, Pope Francis said these “can awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says ‘Never again’ to every form of abuse”. It is to this end that Archbishop Brislin called for the September 15 day of penance and fasting. “May we all abstain from some food or something enjoyable on that day,” he said. “In this way, may we show our repentance and beg forgivenesses of our own sins and the sins of others,” he said. “By doing so, may we show solidarity with all victims of sexual abuse and may our fast, in the words of the Holy Father, ‘make us hunger and thirst for justice and impel us to walk in the truth, supporting all the judicial measures that may be necessary’,” Archbishop Brislin said.
STAFF REPORTER
UNA Carelse became the first “Southern Cross baby” in more than a decade when she was born in late August to our journalist Erin Carelse and her husband Brent. In the past 25 years, only two Southern Cross staff members have given birth. The last Southern Cross babies—a pair of twins—were born to then-administrative assistant Ugeun Finlayson in 2007. Mrs Carelse’s pregnancy was not easy, with doctors believing at one point that she had miscarried. The latter parts of the pregnancy and the premature birth itself—Luna’s due date was September 30!—also caused moments of grave anxiety. But now both mother and her child— Mrs Carelse’s third—have recovered well. Mrs Carelse said she is grateful for God’s protection and the many prayers that were said on her and Luna’s behalf.
Pope: Why I keep silent on lies BY CINDY WOODEN
T
HE best way to respond to scandal and divisiveness, as Jesus himself showed, is to stay silent and pray, Pope Francis has
said. “With people lacking goodwill, with people who seek only scandal, with those who look only for division, who want only destruction”, he said, the best response is “silence. And prayer,” the pope said in a homily. The pope did not refer to the now discredited allegation by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former papal nuncio to the United States who called on Pope Francis to resign for allegedly ignoring sanctions Pope Benedict XVI had placed on then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for sexual misconduct. Archbishop Viganò has since backtracked, saying that the sanctions were “private”. Asked about the archbishop’s allegations, Pope Francis told reporters to read the document for themselves and make their own judgments. The Gospel for the Mass at which the pope preached recounted Jesus’ return to Nazareth and the fury of the townspeople when he refused to perform miracles for them. In his homily, Pope Francis said the reading should help Christians “reflect on how to
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act in daily life when there are misunderstandings”, but also to understand “how the father of lies, the accuser, the devil acts to destroy the unity of a family, of a people”. Pope Francis said that it was with his silence that Jesus defeated the “wild dogs”, the devil, who “had sown lies in hearts”. “It wasn’t people, it was a pack of wild dogs that chased him out of the city... With his silence [Jesus] defeats that wild pack and walks away because it was not yet his hour,” the pope said. “This teaches us that when there is this way of acting, of not seeing the truth, silence remains,” he said. Even in a family, he said, there are times when a discussion of politics or sports or money escalates into a truly destructive argument. “In these discussions in which you see the devil is there and wants to destroy—silence. Have your say, then keep quiet,” Pope Francis advised. “Because the truth is meek. The truth is silent. The truth is not noisy.” Remaining silent and refusing to fight back is not always easy, but it is what Jesus did and it is “anchored in the strength of God”, he said. “May the Lord grant us the grace to discern when we must speak and when we must remain silent,” the pope prayed.—CNS