On the long road to healing

A decade after revelations of clergy sex abuse rocked the Archdiocese of Boston, survivors still come to Cardinal Sean O’Malley in search of healing.

Not a month passes, O’Malley said, without a victim asking for an appointment. Nearly nine years into his tenure as archbishop of Boston, the cardinal still ministers to victims, still encourages them to return to the church that so profoundly let them down.

He sees his pastoral duty to sex abuse survivors as this: “First of all, to let them know how sad we are that this ever happened,’’ he said. “And a recognition that, you know, apologies won’t make the hurt go away.’’

In a lengthy interview marking the 10-year anniversary of revelations about the archdiocese’s role in protecting abusive priests, which sparked a worldwide Catholic upheaval, O’Malley could not say when the church would achieve redemption and forgiveness.

The sex abuse scandal, he said, has changed the church for all time.

“Obviously, the revelations that took place 10 years ago caused great pain and upset in the whole community, and people were angry, disappointed, shocked, saddened,’’ said O’Malley, speaking deliberately in a dimly lighted dining room at the rectory of Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End.

“However, out of that pain came the will to make our church institutions and schools and parishes the safest place possible for children, to mobilize the Catholic community so this would not happen again, and to try to bring some healing to the individuals and the families that were most affected by this terrible scandal,’’ he said.

“It’s something that permanently marks the way that we do things going forward.’’

But as much as the church wants to go forward, the past will not let go.

At Advent season every year, O’Malley celebrates a Mass for survivors of clergy sex abuse. The most recent, last month at the Pastoral Center in Braintree, attracted about 50 people. Two survivors who attended told O’Malley it was the first time they had been to church in 20 years, he said.

“I felt consoled they were making that step to have some contact with the church and hopefully there will be some healing that comes out of it, and greater peace in their lives,’’ said O’Malley, in the careful, measured tones for which he is known.

The cardinal, who has been described as remote, had little to say about how the crisis affected him personally. He was, he said, “saddened … disappointed.’’ He said he does not feel rage at the perpetrators, nor has he despaired while he has tried to heal the damage they caused.

“The church has always had the human factor,’’ O’Malley said. “So there has always been sinfulness and mistakes … and as difficult as that is, when you look at history there have always been moments when the church has been in need of reform, in need of change, in need of repentance. This is another of those moments for us.’’ [more]

SOURCE

Boston.com