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.”
[…]
About the courageous Jennifer Roback Morse, yours truly recalls her vigorous testimony before the Legislature of the state of Washington in 2012, when legalization of gay “marriage” was on the docket, or on the table, or the bed, or whatever.
Testifying that same morning, here also was a quite handsome young man of twenty years, a poster child in white shirt and tie and whose parents divorced when he was twelve. After having been shaped by his father’s absence, he had recently reunited with his father–for whom he discovered that he now had a deep attachment. He would like to find an older man just like his father to intimately share the rest of his life. The bobble heads of legislators nodded in compassionate sympathy. Only moments before, in the crowded front of the chamber, two sympathetic male staffers, also in white shirts and ties, embraced each other with prolonged excitement, each chortling aloud without blushing, “I have ‘straight’ love. . . .”
The rest is history…
“In the regular November 2012 elections, voters for the first time approved the legalization of same-sex marriage by popular vote in three states: Maine, Maryland, and Washington [an unsuccessful referendum]. Maine’s law took effect on December 29, 2012. Maryland started allowing same-sex marriages on January 1, 2013. In Washington state, the first [FIRST!] licenses were distributed on December 6, with the first marriages on December 9 following the mandatory three-day waiting period [Wikipedia].”
Then, of course, the United States Supreme Court climbed in bed (5-4), reversing millennia of Civilization with the stroke of a pen, or whatever. Said Chief Justice John Roberts: “Celebrated today’s decision, but do not celebrate the Constitution.” https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/26/417720924/roberts-celebrate-todays-decision-but-do-not-celebrate-the-constitution
Well, I’m not surprised. The massive entertainment industry (even children’s entertainment), the artistic and creative industries (especially children’s authors of books), the political world, many influential companies that employ people at really good wages, and especially the academic community, along with many of the historically mainline churches (who seem to be bleeding members!) have all embraced and endorsed everything that the very powerful and visible Same Sex Lobby groups have presented as “facts”. These three social organizations, much more than the orthodox “religious world”, influence almost everyone, even devoted Christians.
I think that same sex couples can raise well-balanced children IF they include heterosexuals in their circles of friends and allow their children to spend time with coaches, teachers, friends, relatives, etc. who hold opposing views from them, and make it clear to the child that he/she is a unique individual who needs to follow the path that is really “them” and not try to be someone they are not. I think that’s tough for many younger people nowadays, who have swallowed the mantra that we can all “be all that we can be!”
I also think that’s tough for many “straight” (and LBGTQ+) parents who often expect their children to be something they’re not; e.g., very intelligent, or artistic, or “religious” or athletic (especially athletic!), or outgoing and popular, or contemplative and sensitive.
If SSA couples raise children who turn out to be well balanced it’s only through the Grace & Mercy of God, not because of their domestic circumstances.
It’s bad enough when a single parent has to raise a child without a mother or father due to death or desertion. Children can understand that. It’s entirely a different thing when a biological mother or father is purposely erased through an anonymous donor/surrogate.
Overturn Anthony Kennedy’s insane quackery woke-religion, which is absolutely abusive to all, especially children and young people.
Common Law [for the US the common law of England] conveyed to the legal mind traditions drawn from natural law, universally acknowledged legally observed standards, reasoned opinions, religious principles, stare decisis verdicts that were the basis for an ordered society.
As Chief Justice Roberts, Scalia, the other dissenting justices during the 2015 majority decision to permit same sex marriage, the Constitutional based understanding of marriage exclusively between a man and a woman, drawn from tradition, was struck down by a radical, irrational intrusion into that commonly held understanding.
It is the same as saying a man can be a woman, or that we cannot define what a woman is – which is exactly what has transpired since the 2015 Scotus decision. Logical or Right Reason has been undermined. Only a reversal of that decision can remove legality from that immoral madness. Unfortunately, ending the practice requires a moral conversion of our culture.
Catholicism in context must first put its own house in order regarding the trend toward normalizing homosexual behavior in house to be effective in reversing it in the general population. Otherwise homosexuality will lead to the destruction of mankind.
True, Father Peter. It is, in essence, discriminating against the essence of being, in essence, a Loving Husband or Wife, Father or Mother, in order to accommodate the engaging in or affirmation of sexual acts that regardless of the actors or the actors desire, even if the actors are a man and woman united in marriage as Husband and Wife, deny the Sanctity and Dignity of every Human Person, and are thus Physically, Psychologically, Spiritually, and Emotionally harmful. We can know through both Faith and reason, any follower of Jesus The Christ who desires to accommodate the engaging in or affirmation of demeaning sexual acts , which are disordered because they deny the Sanctity and Dignity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and thus The Sanctity and Dignity of every Beloved Son or Daughter from the moment of conception to natural death, ipso facto separates oneself from The One Body Of Christ, due to the fact that Love, which is always rightly ordered to the personal and relational inherent Dignity of the persons existing in a relationship of Love, is devoid of every form of Lust.
“Catholicism in context must first put its own house in order regarding the trend toward normalizing homosexual behavior in house to be effective in reversing it in the general population. Otherwise homosexuality will lead to the destruction of mankind.”
Respectfully, Catholicism is ordered to The Word Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love Incarnate, Our Savior, Jesus, The Christ, thus Catholicism is in order and practiced by The Faithful, The One Body Of Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost.
Those who deny Christ’s Teaching on Sexual Morality, having ipso facto defected from The Catholic Faith, until they repent and affirm Christ’s teaching , are not to be counted among The Faithful, least it appear one can remain in communion with Christ and His One , Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, while denying The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, The Perfect Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, Who Proceeds From The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ.
That divine ordering of the Mystical Body doesn’t ensure that all its members are living lives that reflect that order. That includes hierarchy. As such there’s sin in the Church today, the egregious sin of homosexuality. A faithful elect will remain to the end. In the end the Church teaches it is Christ who will be the victor of Satan and evil.
Natural Law, the reflexion of the Eternal Law as Aquinas teaches the Natural Law Within, refers to the innate ability to distinguish good from evil. We find it recognized by Cicero who said the law of nature is the same in Rome as it is in Athens.
It is prescient knowledge realized in the act of deliberation of a moral act. Which is why the Church says the Decalogue is a reminder God gave to Man through Moses. As a natural faculty we don’t require grace to apprehend the natural law, thus it’s the bedrock for conscience. Although grace assists in its apprehension and consistency in practice.
Apart from Natural Law there are laws or principles of behavior that surpass Natural Law and are revealed by the Holy Spirit. These revealed principles of behavior are those that are necessary for salvation and best recognized in Christ’s passion, and the willingness to suffer deficit to oneself for the good of others.
Tullius Cicero in De Legibus Book I says, “And there will not be different laws at Rome and at Athens, or different laws now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law will be valid for all nations and all times”.
If the Ruth institute was founded for the purpose of defending traditional Christian marriage, would their endorsing any study pertaining to a defense of their position be a credible reason for believing it? Since we all tend to stack the deck in our favor there is little hope that their case is presented objectively. Is it likely that they would ever cite a study which came to opposite conclusions as being good or accurate? No not at all.
I am not making any statement about the mission or reputation of the Ruth Institute ( about this I am totally ignorant) , I’m only trying to make the point that it is very difficult if not impossible to defend our moral values by citing sociological studies. Professionals on both sides of the fence can come up with “studies “ which support their biases.
I am 100% pro traditional family values and I don’t need any study to confirm it and no number of opposing studies will ever change my mind. Period.
I think you might have it backward, James – the Ruth Institute isn’t endorsing the Regnerus study; the Regnerus study affirms the Ruth Institute’s positions. I’m no sociologist, and I haven’t poured over any of the data or read the study; but based on the commentary provided by the Cornell Sociologists from their Multiverse Analysis on Regnerus’ data, it sounds like they were hoping to discredit Regnerus’ study; but instead re-affirmed his result. That said, the point of the article seems to say that there is scholarly, robust research (even in the field of Sociology! and even from a school like The University of Texas!), that reaffirms the value of providing traditional marriages and family composition for the material welfare of offspring.
I think i remember that The Ruth Institute tries to help victims of the Sexual Revolution. Defending marriage would correlate with that goal I guess.
Surely you wouldn’t reject every study an organization like The Ruth Institute makes public on the grounds that studies with differing outcomes exist?
I’m cautious about these kind of things too but you’d have to look at the criteria and populations studied to make a comparison.
Studies and polls do mean something but they can also be set up for certain outcomes.
From an NCR article today:” Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D., is founder and president of the Ruth Institute, which helps the victims of the Sexual Revolution recover from their experiences and become advocates for positive change.”
A premise for homosexuality’s universal expansion and the destruction of mankind is the dissolution of moral principles that correctly direct the will toward its correct object. Remove those rational, religiously held principles and the will loses its direction toward a due end. Reason wanders where pleasure leads it, abnormal sexuality becomes an option solely based on pleasure.
And the absence of a well formed conscience!
Do we really see distingush between a same sex home from a broken home? Perhaps I don’t.
God created two sexes, not one. Homosexual activity is abhorrent. But the progressive movement looks to expand recognition of Gay rights. The dilemma for straights is how we conduct our relationship with Gays going forward?
Can we isolate them? I have Gay friends. Will there be a bill to outlaw same sex marriage? Will that attempt at containment trigger violence? There have been many attempts to evangelize Gays. A major attempt was made in Minnesota…
Several years ago, former U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann and her husband Marcus created a “clinic” using the slogan “Pray the Gay away”. They practiced “Conversion Theory”. It was closed for improper record keeping. The “impact” of the clinic remains largely unknown, except for several men who said their mental anguish was the result.
We must continue our trek to “address” the issue. However, it remains an issue until we know how we do it. God help us.
‘Do we really see distingush between a same sex home from a broken home? ”
***************
Yes, Mr. Morgan I think so. While prison populations are largely boys from single parent homes that can reflect poverty as well as the absence of a father in the home.
I’m guessing psychological issues will look different when children are “created” through anonymous donors & surrogates. I know a woman who found out her conception happened in that fashion & she had a real breakdown. It completely turned her world upside down.
Children aren’t pets or commodities. They have inherent human rights & one of those is to know & have a relationship with their father & mother, if living. And their extended family also.
mrscracker: so much truth in what you write. Shout it from the rooftops!
Thank you, Deacon Edward and God bless you.
“Reality is greater than ideas” – what reality, which idea? When? How?
The reality that man is biologically grounded which necessarily informs his interior and his society
Or
That state of affairs where delinquents and criminality are not backing off “so therefore” -the therefore being a mental idea process- “therefore” they must be facilitated – a combination of moralized obliging “must”/“ought” and of creating activity and directing action for real
With the latter being given not only ascendancy but being presented as absolute.
Very sad. My cousin and his wife are still friends with two women (I knew them in HS, younger than me, but don’t think they were gay then or they hid it).
When gay started to be “accepted” in society they came out. They married when that became a thing you could do. They ended up “adopting” 2 babies who are mid/late teens. We were all at a picnic and my aunt heard the boy, sadly lament saying, “I’m never going to have a dad”. It broke my heart. Unfortunately, he did while growing up, had a lot of behavior issues. I suspected because his family wasn’t “normal” and wanted a dad like other families. Horrible. His sister also had some difficulty, but she “seems” sort of ok in comparison, but she has females that are like her. Although, not having a dad could cause bad decisions when dating/marrying. It’s hard to be around them, the boy is miserable, the girl trying to deal with it and the “moms” look miserable /unhappy too, bc the kids aren’t completely happy. I’m sure the son has told them what he thinks and resents them or even hates them for doing that to him. Extremely heart breaking.
I had thought what would I think if I was in that situation. I’d be confused, and feel like I wasn’t grounded. And I’d totally lament not having what most people had a dad and a mom. I’d probably run away and stay at a friend’s if I could or ask family members if they could adopt me! I would be beyond miserable.
Wish I could adopt their kids and get them out of that selfish situation. How could you make a decision to have kids without thinking about the repercussions that they would have to endure-being made fun of in school-haha you don’t have a dad/mom.
If one chooses to act on their propensity toward homosexual, don’t adopt or surrogate children. You bringing them up in an unnatural situation., that in most cases cause harm-confused, behavioral/ anger, self-harm or suicide. It’s one thing if people make their own decision to be gay, but, don’t drag children into it. 🙏🏻
Re Fr. Morelli above (7:17) – “Unfortunately, ending the practice requires a moral conversion of our culture”.
Agreed. A tall order but that’s what’s required.
I note that the Baptists have urged a rethinking of Obergefell.
From a phenomenological perspective, imagine for a moment the life experience of a person who comes to know the fact that his/her life began as a result of the union of donated ova and sperm in a petri dish adopted by two (or three or four since laws are indeed fungible) homosexuals. Imagine for a moment that this is you.
There will always be problems when we encourage the patients to run the hospitals and the lunatics to run the asylums. It is doubtful that the Creator made a mistake in creating men and women with their unassailable characteristics and function for reproduction of their species.