News
Paulists open Office of Reconciliation
Mon Feb 5, 2007
The Paulist Fathers open a national office for Reconciliation to address the need to heal the hurt in today's Church.
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Jesuit Father J-Glenn Murray has seen both
sides of the hurt.
In the wake of the church sex abuse scandal, Father Murray
encountered a young man who had been abused by four priests. "How do you
know what to say to this young man?" he said. "I didn't know where to
begin."
On the other end of the spectrum, Father Murray has seen the
devastation caused when a fellow priest was falsely accused of abuse.
"He was just assumed guilty," he said.
These experiences reinforced the need for reconciliation within
the church in Father Murray's mind, and that is one of the reasons he
joined 15 other religious and laypeople on the board of directors for
the new Paulist Office for Reconciliation.
The office was recently established by the Paulist Fathers at
the North American Paulist Center in Washington, where the first board
meeting took place Jan. 23.
Reconciliation involves healing people's wounds -- whether it be
caused by abuse, disagreement with the church's stand on an issue or
anything that led someone to feel alienated or rejected -- and welcoming
people back to the church.
The Paulists are devoting $1.2 million over the next five years
to reconciliation awareness, training and programming, according to
Paulist Father John E. Hurley, director of the reconciliation office.
"People's lives depend on what we do as disciples of Jesus
Christ," Father Hurley said in his welcome address to the board members.
"It begins with recognizing that those experiencing alienation and hurt
in the church are our brothers and sisters.
"It begins with our baptism. ... Can we remain complacent with
the reality that some of our brothers and sisters are not at the
(eucharistic) table and are starving to death spiritually? The
eucharistic table is a place for sinners, not recognition for a job well
done," he said.
The office's goal is to develop a wide pastoral process to
address the need for dialogue and reconciliation in the church today by
not only supporting Paulist reconciliation initiatives, but to engage
theologians on the social and personal dimensions behind reconciliation
issues; provide a multimedia presentation and processes for
dialogue/listening sessions between individuals within local parishes
and dioceses; to dialogue with the U.S. and Canadian bishops
conferences, laity and church leaders to implement reconciliation within
the church; and more.
Susan Timoney, who is on the faculty of Trinity University in
Washington and teaches Christian spirituality in the permanent diaconate
program of the Archdiocese of Washington, said reconciliation is a faith
concept that rarely gets mentioned.
"Yet it is deeply rooted in the Gospel," she said. "We need to
think creatively (to) bring alive the good news."
Bob Bowers, an ex-officio board member, has already seen the
fruits of Paulist initiatives at the Paulist Center in Boston, the
epicenter of the sex abuse scandal in the United States.
"There is now hope and healing where there was distrust and
pain," he said.
Father Hurley told the board members that what they were taking
on was nothing less than a divine initiative.
"Are we willing," he asked, "to leave the 99 and seek out the
one that is lost?"
