While it has been good to reflect on something other than the evils infesting the Church, I take this opportunity to return to the subject, but I hope in a pro-active, productive way. Along with grief, anger, consternation, frustration, disbelief, and confusion that you have rightly experienced and shared with me because of all that has been revealed since that Wednesday in late June, there also have been two other consistent responses from the faithful in Christ, including you, for which I am daily grateful. The first is concern for me, and I would guess for other priests whom you know. That is a greater gift than I can express! The second is the desire you have to do something. It is this latter, healthy desire that I hope to address.
Earlier this summer I shared with you some examples of my personal knowledge and experiences of the plague that afflicts our Church, and the resolute opposition to it that I am confident my entire generation of clergy shares. This has resulted among clergy of the past quarter-century or thereabouts in a habit of refusal to accept not only participation in, but moreover laxness toward or even casual tolerance of unchaste behavior or language among the brethren, and wherever practicable to be “our brother’s keeper.”
When it came to those above us and ahead of us, who exercise authority over us and not vice versa, who failed to see the serious necessity of this accountability, I admit that there has been some resignation to wait for the cancer to pass from the Body of Christ – to “age out,” as it were. Perhaps it is my intimate familiarity with the hierarchy that leads me to a conviction of its immovability, and therefore a certain degree of cynicism about your or my ability to elicit some action or change.
But one of the brethren, my friend Msgr. Bill Parent, Pastor of St. Elizabeth in Rockville, recently proposed to his parish a letter for them send to the Holy Father’s representative in the United States, the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Christophe Pierre. The letter is circumspect but forthright, and acknowledges that Archbishop Theodore McCarrick was allowed to abuse us, the people of the Archdiocese of Washington, when he was placed over us even though already a known abuser. It is right and reasonable for us to express our desire for these three things – truth, accountability, and transparency.
I might come up with a different letter if I were to draft one myself, as well might you. But this one is good, especially the closing paragraph that steers us clear of disobedience and disorder. To lend our voices to this call, already undertaken by our brothers and sisters in Rockville, will lend weight to unanimity.
Go to the web site of Saint Elizabeth Rockville (https://stelizabethchurchmd.org) and click on “Three Simple Things,” or to (https://app.flocknote.com/note/2482533) to get straight to the letter, and click on the PDF. You can type in your name and address, then print the letter, sign it, and put it in the mail. Also, I will print copies of the letter and place them near the entrance of the church. Write in your name and address, then sign the letter and mail it. Or, if you want, you may drop your completed letter at the rectory and we will make a packet for the Nunciature, also send copies to Cardinal DiNardo, President of the USCCB.
With the help of God, the weight of this outcry will reveal to the hierarchy the seriousness of our alarm and concern. With the help of God, this will have a positive influence on the choice of our next Archbishop and the behavior of all Bishops. With the help of God, this will help with the purification of Christ’s Church that he has already so painfully begun.
Sometimes, there can be a temptation among clergy to avoid a good idea because somebody else came up with it. Not giving in to that temptation, I hope you also will think this is a good idea. If you do not, it is not by any means something that you have to do. But I present to you today because it is something that you can do.
Monsignor Smith
