Denver, Colo., Sep 1, 2018 / 06:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When sex abuse scandals first rocked the Catholic Church in the United States in 2002, Miriel Thomas Reneau was young, and felt “truly shocked to realize that men of God could inflict such terrible wounds on victims with impunity.”
This summer, as accusations of abuse against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick surfaced, a grand jury report from Pennsylvania detailed decades of clerical abuse, and the Pope has been accused of allegedly covering up abuse, Reneau, as well as many other lay Catholics, wanted to do to something.
“I wanted to express my solidarity with the victim-survivors of these abuses and do everything within my power to urge the leaders of the Church to act as courageous fathers in enacting meaningful and visible reform,” she told CNA.
That’s why Reneau, along with a friend who wished to remain anonymous, started The Siena Project, which encourages laity to write letters to their bishops “to enact meaningful reforms in light of recent revelations of grievous abuses in the Catholic Church.”
On its website, the Siena Project includes printable letter templates that can be sent to the apostolic nuncio to the United States, to Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and a template letter that can be sent to one’s local ordinary.
Reneau told CNA that she had already written letters to her bishop and to Cardinal DiNardo when she felt inspired to build a website that would help other Catholics do the same.
Using St. Catherine of Siena as the namesake for the project was a no-brainer for Reneau, who has a strong devotion to the Dominican tertiary, even naming a daughter after her. Furthermore, St. Catherine met and corresponded with Gregory XI so persistently that she eventually convinced him to move back to Rome after 67 years of papal exile in France.
Her example “shows us that courageous and persistent correspondence with Church leaders can be a channel of renewal during times of crisis in the Church,” Reneau said.
The project also lists in their mission statement six points which they affirm, including that clergy publicly admit the sins of the Church, that they submit to outside investigations, that seminaries and places of formation be reformed, and that the Church works to extend statute of limitations laws so as to give victims more time to find justice in court. Those who affirm the mission statement in whole are encouraged to sign it.
However, “we care much less about acquiring signatures than we do about encouraging people to write to their bishops in their own voices and from their own convictions,” Reneau said.
“I didn’t really know what to expect when I launched the website, and the response has reassured me on the most important point: I am not alone in perceiving a need for profound and visible reforms within the Church that I love so much.”
A similar letter-writing initiative was organized by a group of Catholic women, who signed an open letter to Pope Francis demanding answers to the questions and accusations raised in a letter by former U.S. nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.
As of Friday afternoon, the letter had more than 20,000 signatures.
Kendra Tierney is another lay Catholic who felt called to do something as the news of scandals in the Church kept coming this summer.
A mom who blogs at Catholic All Year, Tierney said the response to the scandals was something that frequently came up in a Facebook group of female Catholic bloggers to which she belongs.
Together with Bonnie Engstrom, who blogs at A Knotted Life, Tierney launched a social campaign encouraging prayer and fasting, which is how #SackClothandAshes began.
The women designed shareable graphics which describe the mission of the campaign, explain the purpose of prayer and fasting, and provide prayers of reparation. The campaign is set to last 40 days – it began Aug. 22, the feast of the Queenship of Mary, and will last through the month of September.
“We are Catholic, faithful to the Magisterium and disgusted by the abuse and cover-ups that have plagued the Roman Catholic Church. We are heartsick over the 1,000+ victims of abuse in the state of Pennsylvania and all the other boys and girls, men and women who have been sexually abused by priests and further victimized by the bishops who covered up these crimes,” one graphic for the #SackClothandAshes campaign states.
Tierney said she didn’t expect as big a response to the campaign as it has received.
“The response has been really heartwarming, because it felt like here was something real and concrete and based in Catholic doctrine and tradition that we could do,” she said.
Fasting in particular is a practice that has “sort of fallen by the wayside in Catholicism recently,” Tierney said, “yet this is a tool that makes us better and makes our Church better.”
Tierney said one of the most encouraging responses to the campaign she has received is from a woman who was sexually abused by a priest as a child. While the abuse happened many years ago, and the woman has since married and left the Church, she told Tierney that “it was the first time that she felt like the Catholic Church was supporting her and all that she had gone through.”
“There’s so many intentions for this (campaign), but that has to be one of the main ones, is showing the people who have survived this kind of abuse that we are aware of them and that we want to do what we can to support them,” Tierney said.
She noted that September is an especially appropriate time for a campaign that calls for fasting and reparation, as it contains the feasts of Our Lady of Sorrows and the Exaltation of the Cross, as well as the autumn ember days – the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the third Sunday in September, which were, historically, days of fast and abstinence.
The sacrifices and prayers are “a daily reminder that I haven’t given up on this, I haven’t forgotten about it, it’s…40 days that I keep it in the forefront of my mind,” she added.
Author Leah Libresco is also inviting laity to use the Sept. 14 feast of Our Lady of Sorrows as an opportunity to call their bishops about their concerns.
In her Facebook event, Libresco said she will be asking her bishop “what (he) knew about McCarrick, what he did, and what he plans to do now. I’ll also ask for him to work for the release of documents that would confirm or refute Archbishop Viganò’s testimony.”
She encourages attendees of the event to use the letter templates from The Siena Project as a guide for what to say on the call, and also to pray the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary or the Chaplet of Seven Sorrows for the bishops and their staff ahead of time.
“Let them know when you call that you’re praying for them!” she noted.
Kevin Heider is a Catholic singer-songwriter who has responded to the scandal through song.
“The Body” is the result of thoughts that Heider started having as news of sexual accusations against McCarrick came out this summer, as well the thoughts he had surrounding his wife’s pregnancy and the birth of his son.
“As we snuggled and stared and held our son close for two days in the hospital, our minds were split between the joy of this new life and the shame and sorrow wrought by recent revelations of the extent of the suffering our church has brought to so many of the men, women, and children she was supposed to shelter — not abandon,” Heider wrote in a reflection which he shared on his Facebook page.
Heider told CNA that he had been reflecting on the Church.
His song opens with a meditation on the ugliness of sin among the members of the body of Christ, the Church.
As member of the body of Christ “we have to embrace the pain caused by our members and bear it and deal with the weight of it all,” he told CNA.
Music helps Heider process, and he said he hopes his song could help others who are struggling with the scandal in the Church to do the same. He said he hoped it might have a unifying effect, and could help his listeners move from anger to sadness.
“When people allow themselves to just be sad, they’re truly united in that sadness. There’s a beauty in that, I think, in the simple acknowledgment that we’re in this together.”
In his Facebook reflection, he closed with an apology to anyone who has been hurt by members of the Church.
“To every beautiful body one of her members has ever perversely desecrated: I do not have the words to tell you how sorry I am.”
Chris Stefanick, a Catholic speaker and evangelist with Real Life Catholic, told CNA that the pain of the abuse crisis “hits very close to home,” as he has had family members endure the devastation of abuse, with effects that can last for decades.
“So any form of institutionalized cover ups infuriates me on a very personal level. I know I’m not alone in that. I think that watching this kicks up a lot of personal pain for a lot of people…even if it wasn’t a member of the clergy who abused them,” he said.
He encouraged Catholics to do four things in the face of the abuse crisis: demand transparency, pray, hope, and remain faithful.
“Don’t ever let anyone inside or outside the Church tell you not to talk. Solid accusations must be dealt with until they’re resolved. Be an annoying voice if you need to be,” he said on the need for transparency.
At the same time, Catholics should not let the crisis “rob you of your focus on Jesus.”
“I’ll never let Judas drive me away from Christ,” he said.
“In every crisis in the Church God sends saints as the solution. This is a time of profound crisis. God is calling us to be saints. To rebuild his Church.”
[…]
Of course, the TLM could be restricted out of existence. Administratively and bureaucratically. Traditional Latin Masses are places of great reverence and protection, through which young parents hope to protect their children from being influenced by the unhealthy aspects of the secular culture. One can say that children do not benefit from the Latin language in the TLM. Surely they may not understand Latin. However, they do not much listen to the vernacular either. They may sense a noetic presence more clearly in the solemnity of the traditional latin mass from which they may be better able to choose wisely out in worldy affairs. By writing this, I do not wish to disdain those who try their best in the Novus Ordo. Freedom to choose you know. The Catholic tent for welcoming is great.
So, parish Churches are not places for those who wish to attend the TLM? Where then? Dining halls? Homes? Outdoors? School cafeterias? Surely, the Church has some ideas? Pray tell! Nevertheless, the Guardians of the Tradition would not desire to be too exclusive in this matter. All are welcome.
There’s a good item in a recent Gregorius Magnus about the children respond to the TLM.
I would humbly suggest that the Traditional Latin Mass be celebrated only in suitable church buildings that have the proper orientation, high altar, the choir loft in the BACK of the nave rather than up front, an organ rather than piano (preferably a pipe organ, but these are incredibly expensive–I am an organist, by the way), enclosed confessionals, etc. Many modern (1950s and later) church buildings do not have the high altar, the stained glass windows, the beautiful paintings and murals, the images of the saints, the Stations of the Cross, and of the Blessed Mother and of Jesus Christ, our Lord, or of the Trinity. Many modern church buildings are “clam-shells,” or “circles” without a center aisle. The tabernacles in many modern church buildings look more like shiny safes than a place for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to be reposed reverently. The pulpits are thin little slabs of wood or even plexiglass. And the sound systems are “in-your-face”, with speakers hanging from the ceiling in a way that almost makes them look like a piece of modern art. Also, in many modern Catholic church buildings, the “foyer” is huge, sometimes as big as the nave, and is filled with booths promoting all the various programs in the church–I don’t see this as objectionable–I am definitely a “Novus Ordo” proponent and I love a foyer that has plenty of seating for older folks and young moms with babies, a coffee bar, and lots of room for tables where the laity can learn about and sign up for opportunities for study, service, and social activities in the parish! But I think that a small foyer is more “traditional” and helps people de-emphasize the “social” and concentrate on the actual Mass and on Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Also, it’s quieter, which is part of the tradition of the TLM. Many of these older church buildings are present in cities and small towns, and I think that they should be tapped for the TLM, as long as the people are still able to attend the OF Mass in their older church building if they prefer. In my former city (Rockford, IL), the ICK offers the TLM in a very old and historic church building in the downtown area of the city–the building is in need of various repairs and modernizations, but Praise God!–this ICK parish is growing by leaps and bounds–two Sunday morning Masses in the Extraordinary Form are now offered, and both are full! And during the week, daily Mass is offered and attended by around 60 people each day (some of these are homeless people trying to get off the street and into a climate-controlled place for an hour). A Chesterton School is loosely associated with the parish, and Latin is taught in this school from Pre-K through 12th grade. There is a wonderful fellowship hall and kitchen in the basement. The building has several historic features that are appealing to the city’s historians and other history enthusiasts. The parish includes quite a few wealthy people who have generously given to replace the aging roof, and one of these families told me that their next project is air conditioning, which will help preserve the wood and other structural features of the church as well as make today’s people more comfortable. There is plenty of parking, as the downtown area of Rockford is dead as a doornail on Sunday mornings! There is a crime problem downtown, but so far, I haven’t heard of any molestation of the parishioners or the priests. The priests live in a beautiful historic home right next to the church. Until ICK took over, this church was slated for the wrecking ball. I think that this is the best approach for the TLM and those who love it–making use of older churches that seem best-suited for the TLM and traditional Catholic “church life.”
It is not just the children who don’t understand the Mass in Latin. In the Mass on Sexagesima Sunday the Epistle was the Second Letter of Blessed Paul the Apostle (2 Cor, 11. 19-33; 12. 1-9)
It was a long reading and I noticed that for most of the congregation the priest’s words were inaudible. I doubt that many (or any?) of those who could hear the words were sufficiently fluent in Latin to be able to understand what was said.
While people become familiar with the Latin of the Liturgy of the Eucharist this is not the case with other aspects of the Mass such as the Epistles. This raises the question: what is the point of a priest reading a text that many can’t hear and of those that can, very few can understand its meaning? Some potential noetic benefit of an incomprehensible text seems impossible.
I have read in several articles that those who love the traditional Latin Mass will travel long distances to attend it. That sounds like they are not members of the parish where the Latin Mass is said. The Mass is the center and summit of Catholic life, but there is more to being a parish than the Mass. How do those who come from outside the parish for the Latin Mass strengthen the parish where it is said? Do they take part in any parish activities such as youth ministries, hospital ministry, catechesis, Bible studies? I honestly want to know because I have never seen this question addresses. I live in a very vibrant parish and I can’t see how people who live outside the parish can help build up a parish like mine.
My wife, my son (14) and my daughter (21) and myself all travel over 2 hours to attend the most local SSPX Chapel to our location. We attend the holy mass, then, because we are of life mind, spirit and comportment as those in the local area that attend also meet with the Parishioners for coffee and fellowship. Because we are “long-distance”, weekly we attend Adult Catechism live via streaming online. I can engage the Priest offering instruction and request clarification of any of the material. My daughter attends the young adult group as often as possible. They meet once a month and most of the time she is able to attend. This Spring we are traveling to St. Mary’s Kansas for the dedication of the New Immaculata. There, we will continue to meet Catholics for whom we share much more than the Mass – although, undoubtedly, the Mass is the source and summit of our commonality. It works because it is well worth the effort.
There are many parishes that have members who do not live within the parish boundaries. There are several in my diocese. The days are long gone when people walked to Mass at the parish on the next corner. In my diocese there are some parishes which have Mass said in a way that is so shallow and Protestantized that it’s unbearable in the way that it interferes with being recollected. My territorial parish is one of these so I belong to another parish which is a 12 minute drive away.
Thank you for your reply. I understand the territorial question. What I would like to know if how much do those who do not live within the parish limits contribute to the life of the parish? Do you take part in parish activities: helping the home-bound, youth ministry, Bible study? These are part of a vibrant parish!
Anne Marie, so you do see the problem of taking the Mass out of the parishes? Not only are you yourself are deprived of access to the Mass, those that are forced to travel a distance are deprived of participating in parish life. Furthermore, even if everyone in the pews at your parish’s TLM traveled from afar, your parish benefits: More than one pastor who hosts a TLM in his parish says that the TLM is the only thing standing between the doors remaining open and financial insolvency, the only ones energetic enough to take on projects in the parish. Now how foolish is this Cardinal Roche to cause the closure of more parishes and deprive the NO and TLM communities to benefit from each others time, talent, and treasure?
About 4,500 people attend the Traditional Catholic Latin Mass in St. Marys, Kansas on Sundays (5 Masses every Sunday). We have about 1,000 students in our schools. My family has been attending Mass here for about 42 years. We are building the largest Catholic Church in a 350 mile radius. It should be ready for use in early May. I toured the new Church last evening. Absolutely beautiful.
I read that Nigeria has the highest Mass attendance in the world, 85% of Catholics go to Mass at least once a week. But I just checked the Latin Mass Directory and there are only 2 Latin Mass venues in the country. Do all the Catholics go to those 2 venues? If not, how do they have such a night attendance at Mass if they go to the Novus Ordo Mass?
Correction: How do they have such a HIGH Mass attendance at Mass if they go to the Novus Ordo Mass? (I apologize: my typing is not accurate.)
I have not attended a Latin Mass since I was a child,so I have no dog in this fight, but I would be curious to attend a Latin Mass after all these years and see what it is like. I dont have a problem with the well done Novus Ordo Mass done in my parish, so no personal agenda there. However I have found the Pope’s attempt to stamp out and restrict the Latin Mass petty and unseemly in the extreme. I am sorry to see Bishop Barron, whose work I have up to now admired, go down this road. Removing the Latin Mass from a parish church serves what purpose? Exactly? If anything it creates more of a separation between the Latin mass folks and those who attend the parish mass. What purpose does that serve? If anything it creates a dangerous opportunity for more separation. As someone else asked, where will these Latin masses now take place? At a cafe, at a workout center gym? Certainly this would not be respectful of the Mass.And who will be expected to pay for this “non parish” space, in a era when one diocese after another is going bankrupt? Why even expend cash needlessly like this? Or is the Pope hoping to force these Latin Mass fans to pay for it themselves, and thereby lesson support for the Latin Mass?? Again, inviting a further breech? Because my guess will be once they feel even LESS a connection to the parish, why NOT go off on their own?? Since the Bishops and the pope groveled to the secular authorities who wanted the churches shut down during covid, its no secret a large number of Catholics have FAILED to return. I would think the Bishops would be thrilled that ANYONE is entering a Catholic church for Mass now at all. Whether that Mass be Novus Ordo or Latin. Someone needs to tell them that by making the Latin Mass especially unwelcome, the Bishops are shooting themselves in the foot. Surely the church is facing larger problems in society than this? Like the likely schism brewing in Germany that this same synod-minded Pope initiated? The sexual revolution and its aftermath? The sex abuse scandal? The secularization of the West and the US?
I don’t get it. All Muslim children learn enough Arabic to pray the Quran, Russian Orthodox learn
Old Slavonic for liturgies, High Anglicans use Old English, every Jewish kid learns Hebrew starting at Bar Mitzvah, and I’m sure Buddhist and Hindu kids know some of their sacred prayer languages (All Thai boys spend time living in monasteries learning the sacred texts and chants). So why is it so oppressive to learn the limited Latin vocabulary used at the TLM… especially when the translation is facing them on the opposite page!! Any Catholic who claims to darken the door frequently at mass should after a few years be able to recite everything with no problem simply by auditory osmosis. Stop feeding the furnace of secularization and teach your kids their spiritual patrimony.
It seems his intention for moving the mass might have been out of a desire to preserve the TLM for the younger, college Catholic. Moving the Holy TLM to a college Chapel I suspect is neutral enough a location to extend an invitation to even the SSPX to offer the mass. So, while he might HAVE to shut down the TLM for his diocese, by inviting the SSPX to offer it, he ensures its continued existence – at least until better times than these “modern” ones prevail. Hats off to Shia LaBeouf for giving no pretense about his preference for the Holy TLM as opposed to the Missae of Paul VI. It was amusing seeing Bishop Barron fidget in his seat when being confronted by this obvious impossibility.
The Francisan papacy’s perspective on the Latin Mass: Somewhere, at some time(s), some rigid Catholic people are deeply involved in worshipping in this form. And it must be squelched! Unity above all! They must worship only in the now approved way.
I don’t trust him.
One of the things that I remember from my Jesuit education is that there is form and essence. Here we are dealing with form and policy. So then, what is of essence? The answer involves the statement “The priests did not ask ‘Where is God’?” as noted by the prophet Jeremiah. The answer is that what is of essence is that we seek to know God. How is God known? God’s presence is revealed through signs. (Acts 2.22,43)
Not long ago I had written to the webmaster of the Douay-Rheims Online Bible — the excellent old Early Modern English Catholic Bible. A discussion ensued concerning the Shroud of Turin, and then some mention of my having grown up in St. Louis followed. He responded that he did, too. I mentioned that I grew up in Normandy, which is a suburb of St. Louis. He mentioned that so did he. I mentioned that I attended St. Ann’s grade school. Paul Mann did, too, and graduated the year before I did. ???
I mentioned having been given a tour of the Hunt Mansion, in Normandy, when I was a child. Paul responded that his family had lived in the Hunt Mansion for a time. ???
So then, these “coincidences,” or “synchronicities,” represent the revelation of the presence of the Spirit of the Living God. That is of essence. If the form brings us closer to the will of God, then that becomes relevant to attaining our goal.
Speaking of goals, thanks, Harrison, for kicking that game-winning field goal. I attended college, and was married in Kansas City.
We are TLM Catholics, drive a bit over 100 miles round trip to Mass on Sunday each week and have done so for over five years. Whenever out of town we attend a TLM elsewhere so have attended all over the country. Addressing a couple of misconceptions voiced here: (1) At every Mass, the priest says the epistle and gospel in English after he says it in Latin and before his sermon. There is no issue whatsoever with not understanding those readings. (2) It doesn’t take a genius to learn and understand the common prayers of the Mass in the language the Latin Rite Church has preserved for addressing our Lord. The Gloria, the Creed, the Sanctus, etc. You would be shocked to find how many and how young children who attend and are taught by their parents have proficiency in the Latin of the Mass. It takes some time and effort but more for the stuck-in-the-70’s adults than for the young who seem to be more willing to do something special for our Lord.