THE RECENT liturgy of Lament and Repentance for clerical child sex
abuse at Dublin’s Pro-Cathedral “seemed to be a true step forward”, an
editorial in the New York Times has said.
It noted that, during the
liturgy, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin “offered what may be the
most specific apology yet, showing an understanding – rare among his
peers – of the difference between lip service and true repentance”.
The
liturgy, prepared in the main by victims, took place on Sunday February
20th with Archbishop Martin and Cardinal Archbishop of Boston Seán
O’Malley washing the feet of abuse victims in “an act of humble
service”.
Readings, including excerpts from the Ryan and Murphy reports, were also by victims.
A
New York Times editorial last Monday, titled Acts of
Contrition, said the liturgy was “a reminder that the scandal, a global
catastrophe for the Roman Catholic Church and a national tragedy in
Ireland, is also a universe of individual tragedies. But there was also
hope that some church leaders, at least, are facing up to that pain and
that catastrophe.”
It said Archbishop Martin and Cardinal O’Malley
“went to unusual lengths to involve victims and to gaze unflinchingly
at their suffering”.
There had been “horrific reading for a sacred
space.
A few victims interrupted the proceedings with their own stories
of shame and terror.
“Just as unusual, even startling, was the way
the archbishop and cardinal made personal the church’s act of
contrition. They lay prostrate in silence before a bare altar. They
washed and dried the feet of eight abuse victims ...”
Archbishop
Martin, it said, “offered what may be the most specific apology yet,
showing an understanding – rare among his peers – of the difference
between lip service and true repentance.
‘When I say sorry,’ the
archbishop said, ‘I am in charge. When I ask forgiveness, however, I am
no longer in charge. I am in the hands of the others. Only you can
forgive me; only God can forgive me.’”
The editorial felt “not all
survivors of abuse will likely accept the apology ... Still, gestures
and ritual can be meaningful, and forgiveness has to begin somewhere,”
which was why the Dublin liturgy “seemed to be a true step forward.”
It
said “for that Sunday anyway, the victims took precedence. ‘What the
hell did I do wrong as a child?’ asked Robert Dempsey, who told of being
abused in a mental institution.‘What the hell did any of us do?’”
Information on the liturgy is available at www.dublindiocese.ie