FEATURED IMAGE: Catholic News Agency
– Carlos Frota
1. Many years ago I had a very animated – even heated – discussion with a friend, also Catholic, about the best way to deal with the historical mistakes of our Church that sometimes overshadowed the clarity people look for in her, as a Mother and a Guide.
Our debate started with his negative reaction to John Paul II’s historic initiative to ask forgiveness for the errors committed in so different circumstances in the past, but that represented always a treason – big or small – but a treason, to the Gospels.
My friend was almost enraged by this, thinking that the Pope had allowed the “common” people to see the Church with less favorable eyes, less glorious, too close to its enemies, too much humane, hence more fragile and vulnerable.
I tried to argue, without success, that truth must prevail in every circumstance, not looking at the price to pay, because this is the core of Christ’s message, the core of our attitude towards others.
My friend was concerned, because he sincerely loved the Church, but was afraid of the social impact of the transparency and openness the Pontiff was advocating. He clearly preferred a kind of “honest opacity” as a safety belt…
And I had in my mind the different passages of the New Testament where Jesus criticized the hypocrisy of the religious establishment of his time, the main reason for his condemnation and death in the cross.
The Elders and Priests of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus were less concerned by the moral revolution he was preaching, than by the challenging accusations of their lack of moral authority, putting at risk their status, their prestige, their social preeminence.
2. It’s never easy to put ourselves into question, as individuals, because pride commands us rather than humility. Institutions are even more reluctant than individuals to admit failures and to recognize moral responsibility as a consequence.
For several years of my teaching at university, I had the opportunity to debate with students issues related to the Social Responsibility of Corporations. And it was a very clarifying experience for me because it opened the door to a universe I knew very superficially.
Some big corporations, for instance, even impose on their employees codes of conduct where secrecy is the rule, not just to protect technological breakthroughs, but also to avoid bad publicity about inside practices and atmosphere.
The prestige of institutions, eventually more than that of persons, is essential for them to continue to be socially accepted, credible above suspicion, in the goals or missions they want to accomplish.
But everybody knows that this picture of formal respectability is more and more under fire, becoming fragile in a world where the curiosity of the media is limitless. And also because instantaneous and multiple forms of communication empower citizens to express themselves, putting in the public domain what is private.
3. This leads me to the initiative of Pope Francis to convene to the Vatican, last year, a world gathering of bishops and other national church leaders to discuss and find practical remedies to the protection of minors, victims of child abuse, inside Church institutions.
The topic was not easy at all, and we saw the discomfort in the expression of many persons of good will, trying to figure out the best ways to heal the victims’ wounds and for the Church to learn the lessons of a troubled past.
But another aspect I also singled out. The humility of Pope Francis, with the heavy burden over his shoulders.
There are many dimensions of the Pope’s role, two of them are obvious. He is the spiritual leader of a community of 1.4 billion people around the world, or the CEO, as we say today, of a huge Organization employing millions of peoples in very different capacities and whose personal behavior can build or destroy the reputation of the entire body.
Pope Francis assumed the inherent responsibilities, though sometimes it’s almost heroic, because it’s heavy! Very heavy!
4. The media covering the Bishops’ Synod were clearly divided between a minority aiming at giving the Church a chance to correct herself and a majority that anticipates the end of times and the collapse of the Church. We hear the usual litany of criticism and false lamentations from those who delight in the troubles and difficulties of Roman Catholicism – a campaign intended to reduce the Church to the rank of a small Christian denomination.
But for me the strong and moving messages of Pope Francis and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle were the symbols of the sincerity, and more than that, the commitment of the Church in finding the truth and respecting the victims.
They both know how irreparable are the wounds inflicted on children, whose entire lives are compromised by such tragedies. But this has a consequence that the Holy Father has also insisted on: the pragmatism of the solutions, the “zero tolerance” attitude as the first and the ultimate answer.
5. The painful gathering in the Vatican is closed and the commitments are clear. The Church faces a huge challenge. And She had the courage to face it. The Holy Father once again took over his shoulders the burden of others sins, misconducts and failures. But this courage was not recognized by many.
The critics were frustrated by the conclusions: just words, words, words – they complained.
Nothing spectacular for their taste. Scandal is good food for their spirits. They get disillusioned and are not happy at all when honesty prevails instead.
Those would prefer cowardice over courage from the highest echelons of the Church, to confirm what they most desire: the irreversible loss of credibility from an Institution that is, for their deep displeasure, a Lighthouse for millions of people all around the world.
They cannot pardon, in their deepest heart of hearts, one thing more: the extraordinary example of an extraordinary man, Pope Francis.
Despite so many human failures and even hypocrisy in some quarters of the Church, she continues to be the best inspired guide for lives with meaning and a sense of purpose, in our so disoriented times.
6. To conclude: for us Catholics, Jesus Christ is the ultimate judge. If the Institution needs an internal transformation of practices to tighten the control over prevaricators, the Church will need as well, in the future, media of good faith to evaluate honestly the progress accomplished.
But we cannot forget: one case of child abuse is one too much: it is horrible in itself. Because of its capacity to destroy human dreams, human lives.
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