Pastor's Statement on Clergy Sexual Abuse
October 12, 2013
[Fr. Kevin Clinton, our pastor, has asked me to share this
message with you.]
This week a parishioner
who was born, raised and has been actively Catholic all her life called me to
seek some perspective on her relationship with the larger Catholic church.
She was very confused,
deeply trouble and struggling with feelings of betrayal by Church
leadership. I know her well. She is intelligent and passionate about her family
life and the children of our community.
As she started to speak it was evident that she was out-raged by events
in the upper echelon of our Archdiocese.
However, the early
minutes of our conversation had to be interrupted. The parish receptionist informed
me that the Chaplain of our hospital had a family in the emergency room with a
76 year old person dying. They wanted
me to come immediately. I excused myself and immediately left to do the prayers for the
dying with the family at the hospital. When
I was done I called the parishioner back and we began our conversation again.
Our conversation and my
prayers for a dying man helped each of us get a better perspective on who we
are and what is important.
These past three weeks
I have been meeting with the 17 people who form the Parish Coordinating Council
of the St Wenceslaus church site. We
are hearing a series of reports from all the sectors of our parish's life. There's lots of wonderful things that we do. All of us come away feeling grateful for the
health and the activity of this faith community. We will continue our meetings and talk about
how we can keep the ministries of our parish going as well as strong and
healthy.
A few weeks ago I spoke
at the end of Mass about how alarmed I was to hear a detailed report on my
radio about the misjudgment and mishandling by Archdiocesan leadership of
another sexual violation of children by a priest. I got out of bed that morning remembering the
life of our local catholic community and the many good things that happen here
at the grass roots. I regarded the chaos
and disclosures within Archdiocesan administration
as a "storm"
over my head. I asked myself and
suggested to you, that we focus on keeping our faith community healthy and
strong and not let the storm over our heads get us down.
However, the events of
the past week reveal to me that it is not a storm over our heads,
it is more like a Archdiocesan
hurricane and the eye of the hurricane at this time
is over New Prague! I couldn't imagine that things could get
worse--but they did this week.
In the bulletin you
will received this week, is a request from the Archdiocese that if there is
anyone abused by Fr. Clarence Vavra when he was here as a priest for 11 months
in 1979 or at any other time, you are to call the indicated phone number. I am
sorry, but that requested is late in coming--by 34 YEARS. And to be fair, church authority did not
know of the behavior until 1995--so maybe it is 18 YEARS late. Nevertheless, I
am embarrassed and shocked to pass that request to you at this time.
In our parish bulletin
there is also an important message from the Archdiocese with detailed
information about the problems of the church associated with Fr. Clarence
Vavra. The message also directs you to the
website of the Archdiocese for even more detailed information.
Both you and I need to
sort ourselves out and be accurately informed by facts as we receive them. While I say that, I am not going to tell you
not feel what you feel--especially when it includes feelings of betrayal and
out-rage. However, my vocation is to serve the life and the
ministries of our parish community.
There are many issues that I can give myself to and my life gets wrapped
around the issue's axel. I have to be careful of how I react to things above
me, or far away from me that I cannot control. It may be the functioning of the
federal government or how the Vikings are not winning. Being a priest of this Archdiocese along with
over 200 priests and 170 deacons makes an Archdiocesan hurricane very hard to
deal with.
But even though I am a
priest of the Archdiocese, I am first and foremost to pastor our parish at St.
Wenceslaus and the Western Catholic Community.
This is where the grass roots of the church are--rooted in the lives of
people living in this faith community. This is where the grace of God is personally
and actively present in the day to day real lives of people. This is where my head and my energies are to
be largely spent. This is where God
especially touches you and me in the life of a grounded worshipping
community. These days I am working to
keep my feet on the ground of our parish.
The overhead hurricane is blowing away the illusions of a medieval
church authority culture. Vatican II taught that the church is the
"people of God" and the "people of the church form the Body of
Christ" in the here and now.
I do not know what the
end result will be of the hurricane, but I want our feet to stay on the ground where the grass roots of
faith are alive. Jesus himself had
great trouble with the dynamics of the faith community he was part of. But he did not give up on it. He did not abandon his roots. He was
passionate in challenging it to do what it was suppose to do. The gospel today said to us: "By your perseverance you will secure
your lives." I ask you to recognize the need we have to
care for each other and to protect and care for our local parish community and
persevere in asking for appropriate
reform of church authority. The
hurricane above us is will rearrange things. We need that authority to
function better than it has .
While at the hospital
this week doing the prayers for the dying, a family member asked that our
parish community also remember during Mass at St. Wence their dying loved one as well as a recent spouse
who died. I said of course we
would. Despite the hurricane above,
the faith continues in the grass roots.
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