MASSACHUSETTS
Gloucester Times
Eileen Ford Insights and Outbursts
“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
– Lord Acton
I spent a week last month at the Marie Joseph Spiritual Center in Biddeford Pool, Maine, on a directed retreat, speaking with one of the sisters for an hour each day but otherwise, remaining in silence most of the time.
At Marie Joseph, newspapers were available on a table near the entrance to the dining room but I wasn’t interested in news until I read “It’s time to end pattern of deceit and denial on clergy sex abuse cases,” a headline on the July 3-16 issue of the National Catholic Reporter.
It took me back to a painful time when I lost faith in a church I always respected. As a retired NYC Transit Police lieutenant responsible for investigating allegations against police officers at one time, I wondered if the church needed a civilian review board, for it was obvious that in at least one critical area, the welfare of children, church leaders failed to police themselves.
I shared those feelings with my director and our conversations helped me regain the sense of living in the present moment and enjoying my time there.
But I also felt a need to celebrate the “unsung heroes” responsible for any improvements in the church, not bishops or popes but the survivors of abuse and clerical negligence I got to know, many of them still standing outside Catholic cathedrals every Sunday, ignored by bishops and parishioners.
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