The title
of Bishop Robert E. Barron’s “Letter to a Suffering Church” led me — as a
survivor of childhood sexual abuse — to hope for a book like Fr. Thomas Berg’s
excellent 2017 work “Hurting in the Church.”
‘Letter to a Suffering Church: A Bishop Speaks on the Sexual Abuse Crisis’
Author: Bishop Robert E. Barron, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles
Fr. Berg
wrote for Catholics who were victimized by fellow Catholics. Using St. Paul’s
image of the Church as body of Christ, he sought to help wounded readers come
to see how the Church’s fundamental holiness remains despite the sins of
individual members.
Bishop
Barron, an auxiliary bishop of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, echoes some of Fr.
Berg’s points — he observes that the Church “is an organism, not an
organization” — but with a different aim. His book is not for those who are themselves suffering; a
more apt title would be “Letter to a Scandalized Church.” Bishop Barron’s
mantra, repeated seven times across 105 pages, is that Catholics angry about
clergy abuse should not leave the Church but should rather “stay and fight.”
What we have here, then, is a
pugilistic, often polemic book — heavy on seething, light on healing.
Bishop Barron writes that “sexual abuse of young people … is a rot, a disease,
a threat to the great principles of the Church that we hold dear.” The answer
is to “fight by raising your voice in protest; fight by writing a letter of
complaint; fight by insisting that protocols be followed; fight by reporting
offenders; fight by pursuing the guilty until they are punished; fight by
refusing to be mollified by pathetic excuses.”
On the positive side, Bishop
Barron advises, “fight by your very holiness of life; fight by becoming the
saint that God wants you to be; fight by encouraging a decent young man to
become a priest; fight by doing a Holy Hour every day for the sanctification of
the Church; fight by coming to Mass regularly; fight by evangelizing; fight by
doing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.”
There is nothing inherently
wrong in this approach and much to appreciate. Certainly, Bishop Barron’s tone
is preferable to that of some prelates who have failed to show appropriate
anger over abuse.
Nonetheless, it is disappointing
that Bishop Barron omits any mention whatsoever of how the reader might fight
abuse by personally accompanying victims.
Catholic ministries aiding abuse victims may be few, but they do exist. In Bishop Barron’s hometown of Chicago, the archdiocesan Domestic Violence Outreach trains parishes to become welcoming places for those who have suffered abuse at home; surely something similar could be done for victims of clergy abuse. In the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, the Foundation of Peace organizes days of healing for survivors. And on the grassroots level, the Maria Goretti Network, founded by a clergy abuse survivor and a diocesan priest, helps parishes across the United States form victim-led support groups so survivors may heal in an atmosphere of prayer and fellowship.
The back
cover of “Letter to a Suffering Church” says “all profits from the sale of this
book will go directly to organizations who support sexual abuse victims.” That’s
good. But why doesn’t Bishop Barron identify those organizations so his readers
might likewise support them? Why, in encouraging readers to practice “corporal
and spiritual acts of mercy,” does he fail to identify even one concrete means
by which they might bring such mercy, beyond attending Holy Hour?
Pope
Francis said in his first papal interview that “the thing the Church needs most
today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful.”
What is most lacking in Bishop Barron’s book is this vision of the Church as a “field
hospital” where “we must accompany people.”
It is
easy to denounce abuse and say that the faithful are right to be angry about
it. What is not easy — neither for Bishop Barron, nor, it seems, for the U.S.
bishops at large — is to exhort the faithful to take appropriate initiatives,
in union with their shepherds, to respond to the need for healing in their own
communities.