Grasping the Causes and Context

When the bishops gathered in Dallas in 2002 to approve the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, part of their response/commitment in dealing with the issue of clergy sexual abuse was to commission two studies to help the Church better understand what happened, what went wrong and how best to respond.

The reports became the task of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who, along with their expertise in conducting such research, had no prior affiliation with the Catholic Church. In 2004, they issued the Nature and Scope Study. Yesterday, May 18, they issued the second study, The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010.

The release of the report generated a great deal of media attention (as a study of this issue unprecedented in any organization should have), and as often the case, the nuances of the findings didn't always make it into the final stories, let alone the headlines.

For instance, a number of stories have reported that the study blames the 1960s or the sexual revolution for the sex abuse crisis. That was the headline of two otherwise fine pieces on the report by the Philadelphia Inquirer and National Public Radio. (Please do, click through and read their stories.)

More precise would be that the report found no single cause underlying clergy sexual abuse or the huge spike in numbers of decades ago, although it does explore trend lines in social upheaval as well as human formation in seminary. This is reflected in the leads of stories from Catholic News Service, the Boston Globe, the Associated Press and the New York Times.

One misconception that seems prevalent in the wake of the report is the notion that the bishops are somehow passing blame or minimizing the crisis. The statement from Bishop Blase Cupich of Spokane, USCCB chair of Protection of Children and Young People, makes it very clear where the bishops stand:

We have a position of zero tolerance of any cleric who would sexually abuse a child. This position must remain in effect, for as the late John Paul II declared, there can be no place in the priesthood for anyone who would abuse a child. Such a position protects children. But, it also protects the tens of thousands of priests who have suffered greatly in this crisis, all the while quietly serving with honor and self-sacrifice every day of their lives.

The study cautions against complacency. There is no room for fatigue or feeling that people have heard enough when it comes to efforts to protect children. The leadership of the bishops is needed now more than ever, particularly by encouraging and supporting those tasked with the responsibility of implementing the Charter in our dioceses, parishes and schools.

The researchers also stress that the sexual abuse of children exists throughout our country and our world. This problem is a human problem. Our Church is committed to be part of the solution. The very fear that abuse would ever recur in the Church compels us to take whatever action is needed to see that it does not arise again. At the same time, we stand ready to build partnerships with leaders in the civic community to rally the entire adult world to put an end to this societal scourge.

We welcome the study and its public release today. In view of its findings and recommendations, the bishops will thoroughly and carefully review our response to the sexual abuse crisis and make whatever adjustments are needed to help us build on the progress we have made. ...

Finally, as individual bishops and our Conference leadership have done, I once again apologize fully and without hesitation for the harm and the suffering caused when some priests took advantage of their moral authority and abused innocent children in a criminal way. It is also important to recall what Pope Benedict XVI said to us bishops about our response to the crisis during his visit to the United States in 2008: “as the President of your Episcopal Conference has indicated, it was ‘sometimes very badly handled.’” The shame of failing our people will remain with us for a long time. It should. Its sting can keep us resolute in our commitments and humble so as to never forget the insight we came to nearly a decade ago in Dallas. We cannot do any of this on our own.

John Paul II: A Pope for Workers

The following is an essay by John Carr, Executive Director of the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

From his native Poland to the ends of the earth, John Paul insisted that work is not a burden or penalty, but “expresses the human vocation to service and solidarity” (March 19, 1997). He long maintained that “Human work is a key, probably the essential key, to the whole social question” (Laborem Exercens #3).

In his powerful encyclical On Human Work, John Paul II reaffirmed the right to employment, to just wages and to choose to join a union. He called for a priority of labor over capital. He taught us:

· “The obligation to earn one's bread by the sweat of one's brow also presumes the right to do so. A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from an ethical point of view, nor can the society attain social peace” (Centesimus Annus #43).

· “A just wage is the concrete means of verifying the justice of the whole socioeconomic system and, in any case, of checking that it is functioning justly. It is not the only means of checking, but it is a particularly important one and, in a sense, the key means” (LE # 19).

· Workers have “the right to establish professional associations,” and trade unions have “the Church's defense and approval” (CA #7). “The role of trade unions in negotiating minimum salaries and working conditions is decisive” (CA #15). Unions have a role, “not only in negotiating contracts, but also as 'places' where workers can express themselves. They serve the development of an authentic culture of work and help workers to share in a fully human way in the life of their place of employment” (CA #15). “The experience of history teaches that organizations of this type [Unions] are an indispensable element of social life, especially in modern industrialized societies” (LE #20).

In his vision, unions help workers not simply “get more” for their work, but “be more,” more effective voices on their own behalf, more active participants in economic life and greater contributors to the common good of society.

Pope John Paul looked at economic life from the bottom-up. How do economic choices touch the “least of these” (Matthew 25: 31-46)? In an age of growing globalization, Pope John Paul insisted that all economic life should be measured by how it protects the lives, dignity and rights of workers and the vulnerable. At a time when workers were often treated as commodities, he stood up for their dignity and rights in the shipyards of Poland, the maquiladoras of America, the sweatshops of the Far East and the villages of Africa.

John Paul II, The Pilgrim Pope Who Inspired A Generation

Pope John Paul II keeps filling stadiums and squares years after his death. On April 2, 70,000 Mexicans filled up the Estadio Azteca (the massive soccer stadium in Mexico City) to pay tribute to the beloved pope who visited the country five times. After all, Mexicans don’t forget that his first pastoral visit as a pope in January 1979 was to Mexico, after a stop in the Dominican Republic. And that it was there, in front of their Virgencita de Guadalupe, that he consecrated his pontificate to her and decided that he had to be a pilgrim pope.

In 1999, John Paul II also promulgated the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a feast day of the Church in all the Americas and referred to her as the “Star of the First and the New Evangelization.”

At the recent tribute in Mexico City, the multitude chanted and cheered every time famous phrases from John Paul’s visits were repeated or projected on the screen. Phrases such as “México siempre fiel” (Mexico, always faithful), “Me voy pero no me voy” (I am leaving but I am not leaving [you]), and “Mexico sabe bailar, pero también sabe rezar, y más que todo gritar” (Mexico knows how to dance, but also knows how to pray and above else how to shout.) The man knew how to work a crowd!

It seems everybody has an anecdote to tell about John Paul II. This is a testimony to the impact that the globe-trotting, long-reigning, charismatic pope from Poland had on the lives of so many, particularly those of my generation who grew up not knowing any other pope but him.

In 1989, I was a young journalism student who traveled to Rome to participate at a university congress. I was fortunate enough to get tickets to the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica. After a beautiful and awe inspiring liturgy, I ran to position myself on the side alley that leads to the sacristy, through which the pope would process out. I was a woman with a mission: to take a picture of the pope as close as possible. As he turned around the corner imparting his blessings left and right, I prepared to shoot as soon as he turned my way. Then, something happened. Through the camera’s lens, I saw him looking directly at me. I lowered the camera and, for a split second, our eyes crossed. He moved on but I was still paralyzed, and ended up not taking the treasured picture. I remember his gaze as if it were yesterday. His eyes irradiated a profound peace but, at the same time, they projected a playful smile, as if telling me “Be good now.” The pope’s eyes captivated me and they opened in me a curiosity about him and what he had to say.

As a journalism student, I was also fascinated by John Paul’s II interaction with media. He knew of the power of media to evangelize and did not hesitate to cultivate a relationship with them. He was, in the words of Sister Mary Ann Walsh, RSM “made for TV.”

His love for youth, and the way he was able to connect with them were absolutely remarkable too. My husband was a young pilgrim at WYD 1993 in Denver. He often tells me how special it was for him. “No matter how close or far away you were to the stage, you felt like he was talking personally to you,” he says. Of all the pope’s messages he especially remembers his “Do not be afraid!” words of encouragement that meant so much at that stage in his life.

It is difficult to summarize all that John Paul II did and meant to us: his tireless defense of human life and dignity; the way in which he made the Gospel and himself present to the people of every continent and nation; his profound thought about mankind and what troubles it today. In the end, his message was always the same: Christ is the answer!

Perhaps seasoned journalist John Thavis summed it up well in his obituary for the former pope: “Pope John Paul II was a voice of conscience for the world and a modern-day apostle for his church. To both roles he brought a philosopher's intellect, a pilgrim's spiritual intensity and an actor's flair for the dramatic. That combination made him one of the most forceful moral leaders of the modern age.”

No matter what, however, let us remember that the man who canonized more saints that all of his predecessors combined is being declared now “blessed” by the Church not because of his accomplishments, political influence or management style, but because of the sanctity of his life.
His words and actions inspired a generation to open wide the doors to Christ. He made us question ourselves and invited us to lead better lives, to make room for Christ and invite others to do the same.

On May 1, John Paul II will fill St. Peter’s Square again. With all the pilgrims, our heart is chanting in the distance: “¡Juan Pablo Segundo, te quiso, te quiere, todo el mundo!” (John Paul II, we loved, we still love, you).
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First published as the April "Entre Amigos" column, the monthly Latino opinion piece from USCCB Media Relations

What Makes a Convert?

First published in the Huffington Post:

Easter is exciting in the Catholic Church as parishes across the United States welcome tens of thousands into their ranks through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. Some are not quite newcomers, since they really have been inactive Catholics, sometimes called lapsed Catholics. Many fell away from the practice of the faith or cut short their sacramental life at baptism or First Communion. Others entering the church join Catholicism as already baptized persons from other Christian traditions, such as the Episcopal, Lutheran or Baptist churches. Still others have been atheists with no religious background or have come from a non-Christian tradition, such as Judaism or Islam.

What makes this both exciting and intriguing is that each one has a story of conversion, a mysterious enough touching of a heart, mind and soul to prompt a radical change in a life.

What makes a convert?

Sometimes it is an experience that might make another turn from God. Take the Georgia woman, a native of Cameroon. Her nine-year-old son drowned last summer at a day camp. A Catholic community reached out with comfort. One member even paid for the child’s funeral. Identifying with the immense sorrow at the death of a child, men and women extended themselves to another, not of their religion nor even their country, and they sparked a seed of faith. They didn’t set out to convert another or be examples of good Christians, but their human reaction drew an inconsolable woman to the consolation of the Catholic faith and she learned a lesson of Easter, that in death, life is not ended but changed. Her child’s life was changed and so too was her own.

Sometimes conversion occurs over coffee. That’s what happened in St. Paul, Minnesota, when a 43-year-old former Marine crossed paths with a 79-year-old retired three-star Army general and heart surgeon. Their bonds as military men led to questioning what made each other tick. The younger, a man of science who described himself as an atheist, had lots of questions, and the general had answers that drew his friend into the church.

Some stories have a modern twist. A Maryland man who was a strong Pentecostal found Catholicism through Facebook, and chats online eventually led him to the Catholic Church. He said he found himself looking for a more disciplined structure in a spiritual community. He finished his RCIA program with a priest in Indonesia while working as a volunteer at a Catholic school there.

In Texas a Planned Parenthood clinic director changed when she held the ultrasound probe during an abortion procedure and watched on a monitor as the baby tried to get away. The experience led her to become one with a pro-life coalition group that prayed outside the clinic and had offices down the street. Abandoned by her pro-choice associates she found support with the coalition, who helped her navigate a search for a new job, broken friendships and legal problems with Planned Parenthood. She and her family are set to join the Church this Easter.

Some are drawn by what lies at the heart of Catholicism, the Eucharist. That’s what attracted a worker at Washington’s Georgetown University, who went to Mass at the college with friends. Another Washingtonian, a molecular biologist with a degree in Biblical languages, found the seeds of his belief in teachings on the Eucharist in the New Testament.

Some stories are dramatic; others as commonplace as a conversion can be. Some convert because of a love interest and want to share the same faith. Others have watched their spouse and children head to Mass and now want more oneness with them. Some simply have been thinking about it for a long time.

It’s long been known that faith is caught more than taught. Certainly many people preach the faith without intending to do so, just by the quality of their own lives, as they live human lives in very human ways.

The mystery of Easter that celebrates Jesus rising from the dead is heralded in churches by flowers that come from bulbs and seeds that once looked lifeless. It has a mystical aura about it. So do men and women committing their whole lives to an unseen God, whose presence is so real. That’s exciting. Some mysteries you can never grow tired of.

“I Just Can’t Make It Alone!” Tom Leopold’s Conversion Story

My name is Tom Leopold and I’m a comedy writer (Seinfeld, Cheers, Will and Grace...). I am a Jewish comedy writer, although I always felt saying that was kind of redundant. So much of my humor — practically all of it I suppose— comes from who my people are, what they’ve been through and how they were able to turn it all on its head and find the funny side, even and especially if there was none to find.

I know it sounds odd, but I always liked Jesus. I was never “deep” enough to wrestle with the concept of his being the son of God. For me he had this James Dean-Bob Dylan-daring rebel-hero “thing” about him. Once in a while, I did wonder, had I been nearby when Jesus walked among us, would I have had seen him for who he said he was? And, if so, would I have had the courage to say “Hey, everybody says we’re waiting on the Messiah. Well, the ‘wait’ is over!” Fast forward two thousand years later and I’d follow Jesus anywhere if he’d have me.

Come Easter I’ll still be a comedy writer, but a Catholic one. I consider my upcoming baptism a blessing. One that ranks right up there with the day I met my wife or the birth of our two daughters, to say nothing of having the good fortune to have made a living in a business that I love.

So here is a flashback of how I became Catholic.

We’re a couple of years into my youngest daughter’s life-threatening eating disorder. It also happens to be Christmas Eve and our girl is under doctors’ care at still another rehab center. This one is in the Arizona desert. By the time we had come to this point our ravaged little fourteen-year-old had been too ill to attend any but three weeks of her 9th grade school year, she had spent days locked in a psych ward, and both she and I were nearly run over by a cab as I tried to catch up to her after she’d bolted from a doctor’s office.

So, we’re in the desert, it’s Christmas Eve and my wife, our oldest girl (17) and I are decorating our hotel room with Christmas stuff from the only store still open in the little desert town, the Dollar Store. We are all Jewish, but for some reason we’ve always celebrated Christmas too. There was something kind of sacred about the silly little tree we bought...It reminded me of the tree Charlie Brown dragged back to his gang.

The doctors would only let us have our daughter for Christmas Day, so the three of us went to bed early, each trying not to let the others know how sad we were that one of us was missing. Lying there in the dark that night was the closest I have ever come to breaking — not breaking down, breaking! It’s a whole lot easier to hold your heart together when it’s you who does the suffering, but when it’s your child and nobody can fix her...Well, it would take more than a comedy writer to say it how it feels.

I was praying before the thought dawned on me that I was praying. Maybe begging is the better word... “Please God, give me even the smallest sign you’re up there, I just can’t make it alone!”

The next morning we’d arranged for our girls to go horseback riding, and my wife and I took a walk in the desert. Out of nowhere this cool old guy drives up in a motorcycle he made himself...It had antlers for handlebars and the guy looked like the old Marine that he turned out to be. He skidded up next to us, practically popping a wheelie, and started talking. I’m a New Yorker, so I just figured he was just one more weirdo...But the guy had this great intensity and a mysterious charisma.

He started a long monologue about how he was once married to a woman named “Shepard” and how his present wife brought him to Christ at the age of 33, and all the while he keeps nodding his head towards me and saying to my wife “This one knows what I’m talking about!”

Here we were, on Christmas morning in the desert, and this odd old character is throwing the word “Shepard” around along with the number 33. “Wasn’t Jesus a ‘Shepard’ to his flock and wasn’t he 33 when he was crucified and isn’t this day, his birthday?!” As I’m thinking of this, the old guy keeps telling my wife that I know what he means! And the weird thing is I do, kind of, know what he means! Not what he’s saying but what he means...

My cell phone rings. It’s our kids. They’re through with their ride. Without even knowing who’s on the other end of the phone our desert prophet says “Hang up, they’re fine!” I hung up. After the exhaustion of all we’d been through, it felt nice to be, well, led!

He finally stops talking, guns his engine and peels off only to stop a few yards away, turn back to me and say in a voice somewhere below a whisper and above mental telepathy that “God is watching you!” It wasn’t a threat, it was a reassurance.

There were more things like that. Coincidences? I no longer think so. But the biggest and most rewarding was the day I ran into Father Jonathan Morris.

Thirty-eight years ago I went to a psychic down in Nolita (North Of Little Italy) who pretty much predicted my entire career path...I wasn’t even a writer at the time. Out of the blue I had this idea to reconnect with him and, to my amazement, he remembered me right away. Our daughter had gotten a little better after her last treatment but was falling back again even though she was now strong enough to attend school. I thought I’d go visit Frank (my old psychic) just to check in and tell him how right he had been about all that’s happened to me and to ask if he saw a recovery for our daughter. Frank told me to bring her to him. A few days later we did. Walking up the steps to Frank’s townhouse, a car pulls up right in front of us and out steps Father Jonathan Morris. I recognized him from a picture in his book, “The Promise.” The book dealt with grief and I was getting a great deal of comfort from it. Suddenly the very same, kind, face was right before me.

“Are you Father Morris?”
He nodded.
“Your book is on my bed stand.”
He had already started towards me. He had his hand out.
Why I said what I said next I will never know.
“ Father, do you think you might have a few minutes to talk to me sometime?”

I had seen and admired Father Morris many times on television but thought he lived in Rome. He smiled, holding on to my hand and said: “You can find me right here.” He turned and pointed to Old Saint Patrick’s Church. It was as if I hadn’t even seen the church until he pointed to it. He had just started as parochial vicar there...True to his word he found time for me and room for my family in his prayers. He even met with our daughter.

I don’t think there’s room now to describe all I found “right here” at Old Saint Pat’s. The minute Father Morris took my hand I knew I’d be a follower of Christ. Does my daughter still suffer? She does, we all still do, but now I feel the Lord’s grace. We are not alone.

Happy Easter!

-Tom Leopold
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Tom Leopold is one of the elect in the Archdiocese of New York. He has participated in the RCIA program there and will be baptized during the Easter Vigil. Special thanks to Kate Monaghan.

A Facebook discussion got him started: Kenneth Wingate’s Conversion Story

A discussion on Facebook on God's sovereignty and healings sparked a chain of events that led Kenneth Wingate to think of joining the Catholic Church. An acquaintance he had begun enjoying corresponding with inspired him and challenged him to strengthen his faith. His Facebook "penpal" had been raised Catholic and impressed him so much with Catholics’ devotion to their faith and family, that Ken decided to contact his local Catholic church and discuss how he might join. Seven months later, the 51-year-old Pentecostal Christian is now a candidate for full communion at St. Mary's Church in Rockville, Maryland.

A man of strong Christian faith, Ken also embarked on a Catholic volunteer opportunity overseas before he completed the RCIA process. He spent three weeks in a suburb of Jakarta, Indonesia, performing volunteer work at a Catholic school located in a country with the largest concentration of Muslims in the world.

The RCIA coordinators from the parish worked with Ken providing him with materials related to the lessons he would miss while serving God half-way around the globe. The parish’s RCIA focus from January up to the start of Lent is a systematic examination of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Ken made arrangements for an Indonesian Catholic priest to tutor him (along with the reading of the complete sacraments section in the Catholic Catechism for Adults) on the sacraments while he performed his volunteer work.

When asked about why he enrolled on a mission opportunity before completing his Christian initiation, Ken says it was all in God’s plan.

“An opportunity arose for me to do this volunteer work. Having never really been out of this country, the idea of traveling half way around the world interested me,” he says. “Again, God knew what He was doing. I left there with a far greater revelation of my own heart and character than I gave to those I met.”

One surprising outcome of his experience was a deeper appreciation of Islam and of Muslim’s devotion and commitment to prayer.

A faithful and devoted member of the Pentecostal Church since birth, Ken is now days away from becoming a fully initiated member of the Catholic Church, and emotions are running high.

“I could write a book about it. Though I have stayed faithful to my beliefs and the studying of the Holy Scriptures, I had experienced a dark time in my life over the last ten years. I knew I needed a more disciplined structure in my spiritual community and the RCIA program, along with the Catholic Church's solid foundation of faith, has met that need,” Ken said.

A highlight in the process was experiencing the sacrament of reconciliation for the first time.

“I had my first confession on April 13. I cannot express the power of the Holy Spirit’s presence I have felt in my life since leaving the confessional that night. It has been humbling and amazing! I pray that this experience will be the first of many in my continued growth in God through the family of the Catholic Church.”
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Special thanks to Georgina Stark, of the Archdiocese of Washington, for the tip.

I was in prison and you visited me: Willie Knight’s conversion story

Our conversion stories for today come from a couple of faith communities in Georgia. Special thanks to Patricia Chivers, of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, and RCIA parish directors Cheryl Twickler and Mary Maudlin for facilitating them.

Willie Knight was in prison for 16 years. He befriended the wrong people, and gangs ended up derailing his life. While in prison a Catholic priest would visit him. He got curious about the faith of the visitor who showed him such mercy and began studying about the Catholic Church on his own while still in jail. He learned to pray the rosary by himself.

Upon his release, he inquired and decided to join the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program at St. Peter's Catholic Church, in LaGrange, Georgia. The director of the program, Cheryl Twickler, says he has been a very strong and faithful participant in the classes and that “he has a sweet spirit.” He is also the only black candidate in the class, and possibly in the history of RCIA in LaGrange.

Willie says some of his friends have tried to get him to not join the Church, saying: "Man, that's a white church! Why do you want to join them?" He told them he just felt a strong pull to the Church, and that nothing would change his mind; not even the fact that there have been, at first, a lot of stares by the white participants in Mass, and there are very few blacks in the community anyway. Sometimes he is the only one at that particular Mass. His mother and father (who are divorced and not Catholic) are supporting his decision, and will be with him at Easter Vigil, when Willie makes his profession of faith and receives Confirmation and First Communion.

Komba Kemoh is one of the elect at St. Philip Benizi Church in Jonesboro, Georgia. He was born in Sierra Leone, where he was raised by Muslim parents and became an assistant police chief. His younger brother became Catholic and eventually became a priest. The brother inspired Komba to become Catholic. He does not have transportation to the Church, so his sponsor picks him up each Sunday. “Komba’s enthusiasm and desire for Baptism are very apparent,” says St. Philip’s RCIA director, Mary Maudlin. “He cannot wait to be baptized.”

In the same community, a woman, Tonya Roque, is married to a Catholic man. She is the mother of four children, ages 17-10.The family did not attend Church, as the husband was an inactive Catholic. As the children grew and were faced with many temptations, Tonya realized that they “needed God in the family to live good lives.” Her four children are enrolled in the youth RCIA process and will celebrate all three Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil. Tonya will make a profession of faith, be confirmed and receive her First Eucharist.

Genevieve Mvilongo is from Cameroon. She and her husband and two children came to the United States a year or so ago. Her husband is Catholic, but she is not. Last July their 9-year-old son drowned while swimming at a day camp. The family was devastated. The community of St. Philip’s surrounded them with prayer and pooled resources together to help the family financially. One parishioner’s brother paid for the boy’s funeral. In October, Genevieve attended an inquiry class about how to become a Catholic and joined the RCIA program at the parish. On Easter Sunday she will be received into the Church and her 13-year-old daughter will be baptized. The example of the community inspired them to become Catholic.