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 Timeseditorial 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