Happy Pentecost!!! Hope you remembered to wear red – if you did, thank you for decorating our church and ourselves; if you forgot, don’t worry – the Spirit and today’s gospel are all about forgiveness!

The Holy Spirit is always at work prodding, renewing and reforming our Church as the People of God. Sometimes it’s through anointed leadership, like Councils (try Vatican II for example); sometimes it’s through heroic figures like our martyrs and saints, and unexpected surprising figures like John XXIII and Oscar Romero; sometimes it’s by tragic, embarrassing and downright evil events. I believe the current clergy sex abuse scandal is one such event. Even out of tragedy and wrongdoing the Spirit renews the Church and hopefully challenges us to be more transparent, accountable and humble. With the very important Safe Environment Training evening coming up this Thursday at 7 pm, its an appropriate time, not only to urge some of you to be there, but to count the ways some good has come out of such abuse and also to mention where, I think, we still fall short.

Here in the U.S. at least, Bishops have agreed to a “zero tolerance” policy when it comes to clergy abuse; a charter for the protection of children and young people has been put in place; each Diocese is to be audited annually for compliance, with on site visits every three years (this October for us); each Diocese is asked to have a review board made up primarily of professional lay people (ours was among the first); under the leadership of Sr. Barbara Flannery the Diocese of Oakland established the nation’s first outreach program for survivors of clergy abuse; victims assistance programs have been put in place; background checks (through Megan’s Law) are now required of
all parish volunteers; fingerprinting checks are in place for all clergy and staff with a goal of eventually covering all parish volunteers (this year we plan to reach all in Youth Ministry, R.E. catechists, CYO coaches and overnight chaperones); all our children, both in our parish school and RE program participate in a “Shield the Vulnerable” curriculum; safe environment training is now in place and required of most parish volunteers . . . Heads up everyone – a one hour training this Thursday evening at 7 pm in Church!!!
Where I believe we have fallen short is that no U.S. Bishop has stepped down or offered to resign as in some way accountable for what has taken place, knowingly or unknowingly, on his watch.

As the scandal of clergy abuse and episcopal mishandling surfaces in Ireland and around Europe it’s heartening to hear Pope Benedict XVI distancing himself from those who criticize the media as the problem, rather than as the beginning of a solution. He has recognized the importance of forgiveness and compassion but insisted that justice come first. “Forgiveness cannot substitute for justice”; he also states that the Church is not so much being persecuted or unfairly criticized, but the problem “is born from sins within the Church”!

Could the Holy Spirit be hard at work? As the Church’s Magisterium and Vatican II teach “the Church must always be reforming itself!”