More on Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church

The following is a letter that I sent to the CCCB last October. Several Brockville friends signed it with me. Sadly, but not surprisingly we received no response. Here it is:

October 25, 2009


Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
c/o Most Reverend V. James Weisgerber
President of CCCB
2500 Don Reid Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1H 2J2
Dear Archbishop Weisgerber and Bishops:
We are a group of practicing Catholics, deeply concerned and disillusioned by the ongoing procession of mishandled cases of sexual misconduct by Catholic clergy. The recent arrest of former bishop Lahey is only the latest in a series of such incidences. These cases have led to the unimaginable suffering of too many youth, and, as a side product, tainted the vocation of the Catholic priest. We write to you today to insist that an investigation be mounted into the system established to deal with this travesty of morality and justice.
The case of Raymond Lahey breaks the heart. To discover that Church officials were aware of his dealings with child pornography at least twenty years ago, and yet did nothing, defies rational explanation. The subjection of children to sexual slavery for the entertainment of adults surely cannot be acceptable to our Church leaders. Why then, did Raymond Lahey retain his position until he was finally arrested? How many children were photographed and demeaned for his pleasure? How could those who hold positions of trust in our Church not intercede for them?
We had expected that the issue would be raised during your recent plenary session. Yet there is no evidence that the topic was considered at all, according to your website. Is this not a ‘life issue’? Does the question of sexual abuse not matter as much as Anglican-Catholic dialogue?
We are disheartened. We are disillusioned. And yes, we are angry. As lay Catholics we have stood by, trusting those in authority to deal in an honourable manner with these kinds of cases. We were wrong to do so. Too many children have suffered both in Canada and overseas by our silence, and our willingness to trust our leaders to put children first.
Change is long overdue. It is time for laypersons and clergy to convene, and together devise a system that will not allow for cover up in the case of sexual immorality and abuse. Self-regulation of the clerical structure of the Church has failed and must be redesigned.
Difficult questions must be asked: How can the voices of women and married men be included in future decision-making beyond a simple advisory capacity? How can trust be restored to those who feel their children are at risk, and their needs abandoned? What can we do to make sure nothing like this happens again, ever?
We write to you with faith in Christ. We remind you of His words in Matthew 25: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my own, that you do to me.”
Our children, our faith, our Church. Help us save them.
Sincerely,



Catherine Cavanagh
And others

Inspiring Biblical Women

I enjoy reflecting on the true stories behind the sketches we get in scripture of the biblical women. For me, fleshing out their stories is as valid a way of interpreting scripture as any other, and in fact follows the ancient Jewish tradition of midrash (the retelling of a biblical story to make a moral point). Here's my version of the Mary Magdalene story, originally published in the Brockville Voice and in New Catholic Times. It's not the Da Vinci code, just a reflection on God's love for humanity:

Mary Magdalene

Before dawn Mary strides through the garden, searching for the cave, the tomb, while the gardener stands motionless, waiting for her. The chill of Judean nights gives no hint of the warmth of Judean days. Only his eyes travel, while her feet stumble on the path.
They told her not to come, those so-called friends, those disciples of his. They told her not to risk it. But she will not be denied. Not now. Not ever.
It takes an eternity to find the cave with a flickering candle. And the jars full of oil to anoint the dead weigh heavily in her arms. She presses on until at last a deeper dark rises before her, a cleft where there should be rock.
Someone has moved the entrance stone to the tomb. She is grateful. She leans gingerly into the hole, dreading and hoping, and light dances against rock. She steps closer, then gasps. The shadow of a crumpled linen trembles in the candlelight.
She finds the cave empty, silent, abandoned.
He is not there. There is no one, nothing, just a gaping emptiness in the rock and in her heart. How can this be?
Mary bows her head. It isn’t possible. It has been so hard; the hope shattered by his death, her own new beginning cut off, ending as he took a last struggling breath on that monstrosity of wood. She allows her tears to fall, disappearing into the darkness at her feet.
Time passes, silent, endless in the loneliness of the cave.
At last she places her hand on the cool stone, and feels courage flow towards her from the yawning hole behind. A vestige left from him perhaps. Or a gift from an angel.
She raises her head, strengthens her resolve. She will not allow this to be the end, nor concede this moment to defeat. Freed by his hand of seven demons, her heart will no longer be contained. She has already won this battle for her soul.
She thinks, breathes deeply, remembers his words: “Seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be given to you”. She deposits the now useless jars of oil, senses the new lightness in her arms, the freedom to move, and peers into the darkness of the garden.
There was a presence hiding out there earlier, a shade hidden in the trees. The gardener. She turns and moves back along the path, pushing aside bushes, scrambling through hedges. Where is that gardener? Where is that man?
He waits while she struggles.
It never occurs to her to walk away, that the search may be futile. The seeking itself creates a strange alchemy; it builds her strength, turns sorrow to anger, transforms grief to fire. And when the fire is burning like a watch fire in the night, when it is flaming in her belly like a sacrificial pyre, he is before her, rising out of the mist, surfacing from her dreams, this gardener, this keeper of God’s creation, this caregiver of fragile earth.
She cries, she demands, “Why have they stolen him? Where have they taken him? What have you done to him?”
For a moment, there, in the greyness of rising dawn, he says nothing, savouring this instant, delaying this hoped for resolution, which for three days has kept him from infinity, held him back from the temptation of nothingness, the escape from a beloved but ungrateful humanity, an adored but uncaring world.
Now, humanity has come to him after all, he who was beaten, dead, and lost. Here stands the evidence of faith, the meaning of resurrection, the revelation of God, the hope of all tomorrows.
He breathes softly the word on his heart, in his soul, to this faithful disciple: “Mary.”
And she knows. She understands. Even before the first rays of sun break across the horizon, even before the first bird launches into song, even before the first waft of heat and light hit his face, she knows. The later storytellers will tell how she collapsed before him, how she called him ‘Teacher’. But for an atomic measure of time, an eternity of existence, seeker stood before sought, God stood before mortal, and hope bound itself to love in one enduring embrace.

Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church

I'm saddened but not surprised to read that the attempts to bury Priest sexual abuse of minors has finally tainted the Pope. Of course the Pope has been involved. Either he and his predecessors sanctioned the willingness to ignore abuse over the years (including in their earlier Vatican roles), or they're incompetent for ignoring it. Or worse, as seems the case with this Pope, they deliberately contributed to letting the perpetrators get on with it. Either way, I'm deeply frustrated by the degree of moral corruption in the upper echelons of the Catholic Church.
The hierarchy rarely seems to put the needs of the poor and the marginalized first despite the Church's beautiful teachings to do so. It's frustrating to speak up against oppression within the Church over and over again, and hear no answer from our so-called leaders. Why don't they listen to women, children, the poor, the laity? Heck, why don't they listen to God?

Olympic Moments

The first update in forever (or at least since the games started)! I love the Olympics. Love the spirit behind them, the excellence of the athletes, the camaraderie of the fans, the coming together of nations. Having said that, and I hardly dare ask this, but if we spent that kind of money on global education or health care, could we not solve a lot of problems? Is there some way to do both? Just wondering...

Keep the Conversation Going

Thanks to Pastor Jonathan Zinck and the members of the Pier Church for inviting me to meet and speak with the congregation last Sunday! Everyone made me feel so welcome and the service was outstanding. When we take the time to converse, we all grow in understanding. Thank you so much for helping me grow.

Here's the story about the midwives that several people asked about:

Then the King of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives*, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” (Exodus 1:15) [*Egyptians who ministered to birthing Hebrews]

A Baby is a Baby:
Shiphrah and Puah glide into the hut after dark, their footsteps muffled by sand and by the moaning of the woman on the mat. Little Miriam continues pressing her fingers into her mother’s back. She kneads and pushes, as the shadows fall across her. Miriam’s mother looks up in desperation. The baby twists and assaults her. He is strong.

Shiphrah and Puah deposit their urns of water and oil, then lay out cloths – clean linens even for a Hebrew slave. A baby is a baby. Even so, they hope it is a girl.

The command was clear. Kill all the Hebrew boys.

Miriam relaxes into the background as the partners take over. They whisper encouragement, give hope, inject fortitude. Stories unfold in the night. The midwives bring peace and a vigilant eye.

Hours disappear, and at last the mother grabs the rope securely tied from the roof. She holds, pushes, groans – a tiny cry, a fist, and the midwives have caught the infant. The woman has produced her third. A boy.

Miriam reads the worry in the midwives’ eyes even as they smile, murmur congratulations, and wrap the child. Her mother cries softly, and holds the baby close.

Then Shiprah speaks, “It’s amazing you had that baby so fast, even before we got here.”

“A miracle birth,” adds Puah. “You Hebrews are so strong.” She shakes her head in feigned wonder, her long silhouette quivering against the mud wall.

Miriam’s mother looks up, eyes wide.

“Well, since we have nothing to do, we’ll go,” says Shiphrah. She begins to pack their cloths, the soiled beneath the clean.

Miriam’s mother sits and cannot speak. Then gestures to Miriam to bring the flatbread wrapped in the basket in the corner for the women to take with them.

“We cannot,” says Puah. “If we take anything, they’ll think we’ve helped you with this birth, and of course we arrived too late.” She smiles, gentle. “There are plenty of Egyptian women who provide for us. A baby is a baby.”

And the two women disappear into the night, hushed as an infant’s breath.

Miriam and her mother sit together in the sand-shrouded hut watching the infant suckle, counting his life-minutes, while possibility and hope grow slowly between them. Egyptian women know that a baby is a baby. An Egyptian woman, one of them, might raise a Hebrew child.

A decision is made. A plan is born. History unfolds.

Miriam remembers this night all her life, long after her baby brother has become Moses, adopted son of Egypt, hope of the Hebrew nation. She remembers it every time a slave cries, every time hunger arises, every time hate and despair try to ensnare her.

Years later the memory breathes light and courage into her, when Moses tells her that only those houses anointed with the blood of the lamb will be spared. So when the lamb is slaughtered, the journey about to begin, the retribution about to unfold, she requests a pause, an hour. Just one.

Then, silent as an unborn child, she steals through the Egyptian community, and finds the houses of Shiphrah and Puah. In the utter silence of that darkest of nights, she stands alone. Slowly, carefully, lovingly, she anoints the doorframes with sacred lamb’s blood.

A baby is a baby. A life is a life.

Idle at Yes

"Idle at Yes." That's a quote from my brother's best friend, Mark Alessio, who died a year ago while travelling in Madagascar. He was the kind of person who lived life to the full, every day a new adventure. Last night my brother presented a memorial award in his name to a deserving basketball player at Queen's University. He and Mark had met on the squad years ago.
I like the quote, a great reminder that opportunities are offered every day. Sometimes we just need a reminder to say 'yes'.

Haiti

Prayers and peace to all those suffering in Haiti. See my article in this coming weekend's Voice for reflection on God's presence in suffering.