Easter this year is a season of sorrow as well as joy for the Church. We rejoice in the Resurrection of Christ. At the same time 
we grieve because of the spreading revelations of sexual abuse of children by priests, and of bishops who have covered up the crimes.
We nod our heads when we read in the Gospel of Matthew:
Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. (18:5)
Where do we find hope as members of this church whose leaders have too often not received the child as Christ?
Yes, we may reasonably ask why the media must focus on the Catholic Church, when respectable fathers of families travel to Indonesia and other countries to have sex with children, thereby supporting the lucrative human trafficking and child prostitution industries. And when many others simply stay home and rape their own daughters.
It is undeniable that the Catholic Church is the organization that people love to hate. However, in the Church we lay claim to a higher sort of life. It is doubly shocking when persons who proclaim goodness are found to have wallowed in or abetted evil. So perhaps the media can be forgiven for being particularly hard on those who represent the Church.
“Where was God?” countless victims ask. “Where was God when I was being abused?”
We must not attempt a facile response, and indeed any words seem inadequate in the face of such heartache. The only response, I believe – though it is not an answer to the question of why it happened – is that God was where God always is when the beloved is being betrayed and harmed: right there, in sorrow, in pain. Right where God was when Jesus was being crucified.
As for a reason why, Christianity offers us no answer except for the reality of human freedom – a gift which is too often misused.
Sin, even when we think it is private, is always communal in its effects. While those who have not been abused can never totally understand the experience of those who were, still we all share in some way – though a far lesser way to be sure – in the consequences of the evil. We are a wounded Church this Easter season.
But if in the Crucifixion of Christ we are given a promise of presence – of a God who shares in the grief and pain – in the Resurrection we are also offered the assurance that evil does not have the last word. Evil will never have the last word. In spite of all appearances to the contrary, the love, goodness, and holiness of God are stronger than even the most horrendous evil.
Do we just sit around and wait for that day when all tears will be wiped away? No, of course not. We must take strong, practical action to prevent abuse – and where possible to ease the suffering of those who have been abused – even if that means changing time-honored ecclesial structures. And we must nurture the spiritual life, so as to grow in union with the Risen Christ, for this is the only way that the divine goodness and loving-kindness will be more clearly manifested in the daily life of the Church.
“By his holy and glorious wounds,
may Christ our Lord guard us and keep us.”Preparation of the Paschal Candle at the Easter Vigil
When I was in my darkest hours, my only comfort was in knowing that Jesus was there embracing me, even in the dark, amidst my pain. Looking back, even though it was my most sorrowful hour, it was also my most joyful, because God was with me.
Thanks for this blog. I always find wisdom and insight here. Food for thought and food for prayer. Thank you.