UNITED STATES
Commercial Appeal
August 21, 2018
By Jennie Davidson Latta,
Editor’s Note: Jennie Davidson Latta, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge and Catholic parishioner in Memphis, sent this letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is republished here with her permission.
Dear Bishops,
While I am encouraged by the plan announced by Cardinal DiNardo and the other bishops of the United States to address the latest scandals and crimes of the clergy of the United States, I believe that one key component is missing. What is needed is a public act of penance on the part of our bishops.
I have not joined the numerous theologians, teachers, and parents who have called for mass resignations. I fear that would be meaningless. Instead, I think that what is needed is a public penance service at which the bishops of the United States appear without miters, or croziers, or other symbols of office.
We have a rite for that purpose. We lay people are encouraged to use it at least twice each year. I think that it would do us all good to see our bishops kneeling, in sackcloth and ashes or their modern equivalent, beating their breasts, and loudly proclaiming, “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.”
This should be a corporate action to acknowledge the corporate and systemic nature of the sinfulness that allowed predators to be protected rather than children. I do not assume that every living bishop has individually participated in such a cover-up. But every living bishop has inherited the system of clericalism and cronyism that permitted it to happen.
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