Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)
2002 was an extraordinarily painful year for anyone involved in pastoral ministry in the Catholic Church in the United States. Early that year, the Boston Globe ran a series of articles describing a number of priests in that archdiocese who were accused of sexual abuse of children and teenagers – and describing how archdiocesan officials responded, or failed to respond, to the accusations. Even though stories of priests accused of sexual abuse of minors had been appearing here and there since the 1980’s, the Globe’s reports seemed like a bursting of a dam. Finally, it seemed, someone was listening to these stories of betrayal and violation and believing them. Soon, nearly every diocese was dealing with people who were accusing some of their priests of sexually abusing them when they were younger, and accusing bishops of knowing about this abuse but trying to conceal it or to simply move the accused priest to a different parish. It was difficult to know what hurt more: the realization that such abuse had actually happened (along with the tremendous pain it caused to the abused and their families), or the ways in which bishops tried to deny or cover up these situations. Continue reading “The Shepherds of Israel”