Patheos blog
January 22, 2019
By David Russell Mosley
Dearest Readers,
Over the past few months I have been part of a group which existed for the express purpose of creating a public letter to the Catholic Bishops. Before the current news cycle makes us forget other problems within our Church, I want to make sure this message gets out. I did not contribute to any of the text, I won’t try to make that claim, Dr. Holly Taylor Coolman of Providence College has been the chief architect. But I am glad I was a part of this from early on. The idea is to get as many signatures as possible. We want this letter to get national coverage. Not to spread anyone’s name, but to ensure that the Bishops respond.
Below is the text of the letter. I ask that you read it and prayerfully consider signing:
Dear fathers and brothers in Christ,
We write with profoundly heavy hearts. The latest wave of revelations regarding sexual abuse in the Church, and the way in which that abuse was covered up and made possible, has pushed us to a breaking point.
Abuse and the enabling of abuse are not simply individual sins to be forgiven. They are a radical and ongoing affront to the Church’s witness to the Gospel. They communicate contempt for the people of God, and particularly the most vulnerable members.
As bishops, successors to the Apostles, you have the roles of teaching, governing and sanctifying God’s people. The response to many cases of reported abuse represents failure to accomplish these on the most fundamental level. We are asking you now to take responsibility as a pastoral body for this failure.
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