By Christopher Lenart, a parishioner at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish, Naperville, who is posting once a month, every month, on this blog, writing about faith-related matters, To contact Christopher, email him at clenart@comcast.net. To learn more about him, go to his website: https://www.disabilityawareness.us/
I was really thinking about what to write about this month and time after time, the scandal, that was released a few weeks ago, kept coming to my mind. I thought why should I write about something that is sickening and really evil and I was not abused. I started watching videos about this tragedy and I realized that this is MY church that is being attacked, and if I want to help Her to heal, I have to speak out.
First of all, I have to say that I am very sorry to all of the victims who were abused by priests and bishops and anyone in the church. It was not called for, but the devil wants to attack the church. What is the better way to hurt the church than within the core of the church itself? One could say that this happened 40 years ago so we do not have anything to worry about now. This is what Satan wants us to believe, although we know in our hearts that this is wrong.
I have read the letter from Bishop R. Daniel Conlon a few weeks ago, and it was well written. They have a lot of procedures in place to catch abuse, but there is a lot to do to heal within the church. It has to start with us, the people of the church. If we really want to renew our church, we have to do it ourselves. You might be saying that you don’t have any influence in the church – I disagree because we have the power of prayer. Look at Jesus, He prayed all of the time so it worked for Him, why not us?
I watched a pastor on YouTube, and he gave his parish some homework to do over the next few weeks. He asked them to meet in small groups and think of ways that they could start the healing process for the church. In a few weeks, they will come back together as a parish and talk about what each group came up with. What a great idea, and it’s something I think all parishes should do everywhere. I would take it one step further and hold each group accountable for what they decided to do.
The whole church needs each one of us to do our part in the healing process. I urge all Catholics everywhere to approach your pastor about doing this and let the parish know what is happening, and after a month, just have a gathering to discuss what each group will be doing. This should not be a big task to do.
Let’s take our church back and make it what God wants it to be. I really think when we do it, we will see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in abundance.