Kettler Can Lead Healing from Abuse Crisis

By Ben Ament
St. Cloud Times
May 26, 2016

http://www.sctimes.com/story/opinion/2016/05/26/kettler-can-lead-healing-abuse-crisis/84901508/

Abuse allegations have hung heavy over the Catholic church over the past decade and a half, and St. Cloud Diocese has not been spared. Other churches and institutions have been harmed by these perpetrators of personal violence, but the Catholic Church has received the lion’s share of the press.

As a practicing Catholic nearly my entire life, I am personally hurt by this. Worse, I know people who have suffered by both the abuse of the priests involved and the system that protected those priests. I am often conflicted, though. It is difficult to keep the system separate from the faith. Help!

Thankfully, Bishop Donald Kettler seems ready to put an end to the suffering on all sides this sordid situation, at least in Central Minnesota. It is time. It is past time to do the right thing. His recent statements to the media give me hope that the healing is beginning.

I was guardedly excited when Bishop Donald Kettler was assigned to the Diocese of St. Cloud. Not only are his roots in South Dakota and Minnesota, like mine, but a bit of research into this man’s history with the church revealed a deeply thoughtful and caring representative of Christ’s Universal Church. Here, I thought, is a man with the gumption and heart to tackle the problems of this diocese.

In Kettler’s tenure as the bishop of the Fairbanks, Alaska diocese, he flew to the far reaches of his geographically huge territory. Many of the Alaskan villages Kettler traveled to could only be reached by plane. After landing, his village visits often entailed traveling by foot from home to home to meet with elder native people.

Kettler’s pastoral initiative in Alaska included apologizing for the church and taking responsibility for something over which he had no control.

The St. Cloud Times reported Kettler stated Monday that scores of claims are being reviewed by the diocese and that he wants them resolved "in a fair and just manner while also allowing for the continuation of the work of the church in our communities."

Kettler oversaw just such a reconciliation in the Diocese of Fairbanks.

Further, he encouraged anyone who has suffered such abuse to come forward no matter when the abuse occurred.

Kettler said in a statement, “I apologize on behalf of the Church to all victims and survivors of abuse, who have had to live through, and with, these horrible experiences. Our diocese is committed to helping them find healing and protecting all children and young people from abuse.”

If all goes as the good bishop hopes, these kinds of actions and words may curb the decline of the Catholic church in America. Or at least in Central Minnesota.

Pew Forum surveys suggests that six Catholics leave the church for every new Catholic received into the church. That has resulted in Catholics dropping from 25 percent of the United States population to 20 percent.

This trend has disturbed the church hierarchy for some time. It should. The numbers need not have come to this, but they are not surprising.

A holier-than-thou attitude has pulled the church down and nearly euthanized it. Those of us who recognize the problem lies in an unrepentant and self-protective hierarchy — and not the body of the church — embrace our faith while we shun the structure.

Like the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Duluth, the Diocese of Fairbanks went through bankruptcy proceedings in the wake of the tragic abuse cases. The St. Cloud diocese may yet find a need to follow that path.

It will be painful, should it come to that. In the end, however, financial bankruptcy only entails money. It is the moral bankruptcy wrought by a system that values faux purity over love and humanity that is draining the church of its membership.

What matters is forgiveness and reconciliation wrought by love. After all, that was Jesus’ message while he was on this earth. Bishop Kettler is bringing that reality to the Diocese of St. Cloud.

May the healing begin.

This is the opinion of Ben Ament, world citizen. He hopes to leave that world slightly better than he found it. His column is published the fourth Friday of the month.