Viewpoint
Scandal tests faith, but we still believe
By TOM BLACKBURN
Our pastor placed the host in a
monstrance on the altar, and we all began to pray. We began what can be
compared to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross five stages of grieving: denial,
bargaining, anger, depression and acceptance.
Three hours earlier, in a news conference carried live on local TV
stations, Bishop Anthony J. OConnell said he had sent in his resignation.
Bishops need permission to quit. It took Rome five days to give it -- quick in
church time, late and laggard in the new real time. The pastor said later he
didnt know what to expect when saw 250 parishioners waiting that Friday
night. There is no drill for what Palm Beach, Fla., was undergoing. They
dont teach it at the seminary. He got it exactly right anyway.
On Sunday he preached before all the Masses and then listened to
parishioners, some of whom wanted to hang OConnell and others who thought
he was being crucified. After the LifeTeen Mass Sunday evening, the three
priests and seminarian in residence had an open meeting with the kids and their
parents until there was nothing left to be said.
Very cleansing, is the way one of the adult core team
members described it.
I started with my parish because thats where my Catholicism
had to work out its reaction to OConnell, and it is an exceptional
parish. Of the 14 parishes Ive lived in, its the best by miles with
no obvious distinction to explain why. My impression is that in parishes where
the parishioners feel a sense of ownership, the people handled the trauma
better than in parishes still comfortable with the old pray, pay and
obey principle. Florida -- like everywhere else in this country -- has
Catholics from all over, an infinite variety.
Ive heard from a cross section since writing a long piece
for The Palm Beach Post, a week after the resignation, trying to explain
how the Vatican gave us a bishop with a past to replace a bishop with the same
past. After all the shouting and grieving, thats the question were
left with.
Palm Beach has had three bishops. The first, Thomas Daily, now of
Brooklyn, has been identified as an enabler during his earlier career as an
auxiliary in Boston. The second, Keith Symons, disappeared to Michigan after
his relations with five youths in the 1960s became public. OConnell faced
the world at his news conference.
It was a remarkable event even for a county that had the butterfly
ballots, the hanging chads and the first anthrax delivery. As OConnell
was going, a Jewish cemetery was charged with shuffling bodies around to make
room in over-sold plots.
OConnell said that, under the influence of sex researchers
Masters and Johnson, he was trying some new therapies when he improperly
touched his accuser. Some people thought that was making excuses, but others
(Im with them) think that after all he had already confessed to he was
being honest about what he had already called his stupidity. Others were
offended that priests stood behind him during the news conference. As one said,
When someone is hurting, I stand with him. I am a priest.
Thats what I do. Ill stand with his victims as well.
OConnell, until March 8, was good for the diocese. He came to a land
broken by his predecessor and made himself available to the point of ubiquity.
What he said at the news conference about needing forgiveness himself he had
said countless times about forgiving others.
Some Catholics first thought was that, if there was any way,
he should stay. Some still think so. But given the zero-tolerance statement of
the Florida bishops, including himself, earlier that week there was no way that
could happen.
Some fellow parishioners say they can never forgive
OConnell. The best wisdom I heard on that subject was from another
parishioner, who said forgiveness isnt up to us. It has to come from God
and his victims, and he apparently thought he had it.
All OConnell did to us was take an assignment he
shouldnt have taken. Given the people he works for, who take five days to
react to a publicly televised mea culpa, you cant give him all the blame
for even that.
But it isnt over. A Methodist acquaintance says her pastor
announced 25 visiting Catholics last Sunday. It will never be over.
We have to live with it. The point of my piece in the Post was that the
worldwide, institutional church has to change to deal with bad things openly
and honestly, as our parish did. Contrary to my expectation, the response to my
piece was overwhelmingly positive, even from people whose current parish
situation suggests to them that change will be a long time coming.
I had only one e-mail and one phone call along the lines of
Christ set up the church exactly the way it is, and you had better love
it. One of the most prominent Catholics in the diocese left a message on
my voice mail: The veil over the old boys club is not just
punctured. Its rent asunder. An even more prominent Catholic sent
one word: Thanks.
Weve been through this twice now, but Im afraid
its an event thats coming to other dioceses around the world. The
institution -- the old boys club -- has to change, but we will get
through it. The monstrance on our altar that Friday night was both the answer
to the question of how and the reason why.
Thats what we say we believe. Weve had our belief
tested. We still believe.
Tom Blackburn is an editorial writer for The Palm Beach
(Fla.) Post.
National Catholic Reporter, March 29,
2002
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