Empty pews, buckets to collect water from a leaky roof, poor financial support from the community. This is the legacy wrought by the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the devout Roman Catholic community of St. Bernard’s in the 1980’s.
Many in the hierarchy of the church in this province feel that they have moved beyond the scandals, that we are in a post abuse era. I beg you to come to St. Bernard’s and attend mass, where the number of buckets to collect rain drops nearly equals the number of those attending mass, and look me straight in the face and tell me that we have moved on, that the church has not failed those in greatest need of spiritual awakening and renewal.
The little outport of St. Bernard’s, population of 700 finds itself nearly abandoned by a church that was forced by the courts to pay-out millions of dollars in compensation for the crimes of one man who served the parish from 1967-1982. Unwitting parents delivered their children to a pedophile wearing a collar, empowered by god and protected by the church.
Nowhere is the decline of the church more pronounced than in St. Bernard’s, where wishful thinking and little sincere outreach has devastated a once rich and vibrant catholic community.
The church is in decline across Newfoundland and Canada. Fewer and fewer men are taking the vows, more are abandoning their vows for marriage, and attendance at mass has slowed to a trickle. The Church finds itself barely able to meet the financial obligations of maintaining its structures, paying insurances and a few salaries.
Parishes are being combined in an exercise called clustering, priests are asked to do more. Our geography makes the task even more complicated.
The trends are not good for the church. The Roman Catholic Church in Newfoundland and Labrador is slowly marching towards extinction as the secular realities of finance and the poor recruitment of new priests leaves those impacted by the collateral damage of the scandals nearly abandoned. Like freshly caught fish, gasping for life, these pockets of faithful are taking their last breaths of air.
The ideal solution would be to assist these tight knit communities, whose faith in the good works of the church as their steadfast moral compass was cast upon the rocks by the evil of wicked men and the paralysis of the church hierarchy.
It is too easy for those in authority to say that little parishes like Sacred Heart are no different than the hundreds of other towns and communities that have seen their populations decline and their ability to sustain churches go with it. That the low attendance, the low financial support for the church is part of a much wider trend across most of the Western Hemisphere.
To me the physical building that is the Church in St. Bernard’s is a symbol of the failure of the church, which is such a vital part of my being, to respond to the need of a flock in crisis. The leaking roof, the water filled buckets, the empty pews, the absence of young families, the ceilings - water stained and scarred from years of neglect - personify the church's failure to accept responsibility for not rising to the challenge of repairing the damage done.
This morning the local parish priest, a young man charged with saying mass and offering services to over a dozen communities in Placentia and Fortune Bay while spending half of his time in St. John’s, admitted that pleas for assistance to reshingle and repair the roof have failed. He admitted that the costs demanded by private companies were insurmountable. He fell back on stewardship, begging the local community to take on the challenge itself. He urged the community to do as it had in the past, and come together for the common good. Many hands make light work.
Of the 52 people in attendance, 70% of those were women, and the majority of men huddled along their cherished positions in the last two pews in the back of the church were retired, in their late 60’s and early 70’s. Those capable of honoring the plea do not attend mass. They are the lost souls. It is a vicious circle that the church, and the church alone must break by finally offering peace to this catholic community.
Yes, the church is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, but would the cost of a symbolic offering to a community of Catholics in St. Bernard’s not be worth the financial risk?
I think so.
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12 comments:
Peter,
Societies, cultures and institutions evolve like any other organism. It has too. The world changes, peoples needs change, education and economies change things. Nothing lasts forever.
...but never underestimate the roll that improved literacy rates and higher education have on institutions, like the church, religion and government, that have their roots in pre-literate culture.
It is the questioning of dogma by educated people that has lead to the churches decline. Sex abuse and scandals are only the vector.
They have been going on for hundreds of years but a generation ago you would not be asking these questions.
...your cheery social engineering thought for the day :^)
It would take more than an offering to St. Bernard's to fix the problems with the Catholic church in Newfoundland. Dozens of other communities suffered because the church let abuse go on for years, shuffling abusers from one parish to the next. How many "symbolic offerings" would have to be made to bring the faithful back? Isn't that reverting to the tactics used to keep boys quiet years ago? Bribing them with booze and gifts to keep their mouths shut? Fixing a roof would make the place more comfortable for the few who warm the seats, but it won't bring back my generation, those of us who lost faith in the Catholic church because of their response to the abuse. Here's a suggestion for the Catholic church - locally, say "we are sorry" and mean it. Some official from the dioceses go on every altar of every church where children were abused or abuse was suspected and beg for forgiveness. Actually, most of the people affected probably aren't in church are they? Go to the local tavern, the convenienvce store, the bingo hall, the wharf and proclaim that the Catholic church in Newfoundland is sorry. Go to parents whose boys committed suicide or turned to drugs and alcohol and beg for their forgiveness. And finally, sit face to face with every survivor of abuse, ask for their forgiveness and accept their response - be it "I forgive you" or a slap in the face. Globally - take your heads out of the sand and see that the church is not in sync with the 21st century. Stop whining about people not going to mass or financially supporting the church and reflect on why that is so. Then try to redeem the church. Make it a church of the people, for the people - rather than a church of the hierarchy, for the hierarchy. Until that happens, St. Bernard's, and many more Catholic communities, can consider themselves lucky to have a roof at all.
See you back at work tomorrow.
A.
A
I don't think that you quite understand where I was coming from. I agree that if you offer one assistance you have to consider others.
In this case, it is both personal and practical. The church needs to show the community that it is interested in them. It is as if they have been punished for the crimes committed against their sons.
All I can say is that it makes me very angry that there has not been a concerted effort to reach-out to the parishioners, to try and make amends for what has happened so that the a real healing can occur.
The church has a moral obligation to do more instead of abandoning an entire group of men, women and children who were baptized in the church and who might once again become one with the church. The church was the social glue that melded this community together.
Where and how that happens is a matter for discussion and interpretation.
I strongly feel that addressing the issues with the physical building would be a good move.
It is true. The church had millions of dollars to pay for damages caused through its indifference to holy men diddling little boys but they can not assist those catholic communities that had their hearts ripped out maintain their churches!
It is nearly as bad a sin as the crimes that happened. How can they turn their backs on the people who needs them the most. The same people are giving and giving, less people are going to mass all because most of us are still angry and confused. I thinks they owes much more to us than to tell us to fix the problems on our own. We could if the church leaders had not made such a mess of it all. No one wants to give any money cause they thinks it is going to pay for abuse.
There is money for big cars, salaries and holidays for priests though. I thought these guys took a vow of poverty or something
Let it burn down! It is just a stupid building where stupid people go to support a corrupt organization that does not have a christian purpose. Never a day goes bye that I do not think of what they did. I do not belief that if there was a god that he would allow what happened to happen. I only prays there is a god so they has to face his justice.
How would an investment in infrastructure, the church, be considered a bribe to keep people quiet? It might show people who are not attending church that the organization does care about he community and encourage them to attend mass again.
You can throw all the money you want at the facades that constitute "the church." The figurative foundation of this institution is crumbling. If the root problems behind declining attendance are not addressed, the physical church buildings will all be nothing more than museums or scraps in someone's woodplie in a few years time. If the hierarchy were actually encouraging dialogue amongst its lost sheep - that would show me that they are interested in mending fences, along with roofs.
"If the hierarchy were actually encouraging dialogue amongst its lost sheep - that would show me that they are interested in mending fences, along with roofs."
Well said...and thats my point.
I have commented before that the RC Church has completely lost touch. The Pope's recent comments about how condom use in Africa is only exacerbating the AIDS issue....is case in point. Just imagine how such a comment goes over to the congregation in places where the church is trying to recruit and entice members.
The leaky roofs are the last things that need to be fixed.
Anthony Roy
The church has challenges everywhere by the sounds of it.
Without a place to worship, a flock will be lost.
The flock became lost because the shepherds became infatuated withpower, influence, affluence and status. They forgot what their vow and morality should have taught them. At some point it stopped being about their God. As a victim of a Pedophile Catholic priest, I think that the parishioners that supported these men in their efforts to conceal their crimes and isolate victims are reaping the fruit of their inaction and apathy. Their parishes are coming apart around them. Had they held their priests and bishops to account for their actions or stopped blaming victims for seeking truth and justice for horrible crimes, their parishes may have flourished. They cannot blame their priests and bishops without shouldering some of that blame themselves.
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