(ITALY)
La Croix International [Montrouge Cedex, France]
May 2, 2024
By Gilles Donada
What is the proper spiritual response to the abuse crisis in the Church? is the question raised at the “Repairing the Irreparable” conference in Rome. Father Étienne Kern, who initiated the event, discusses the aims of the conference.
The Church must grapple with the spiritual repercussions and necessary reparations of the sexual abuse crisis, emphasizing the need to honor and support the victims and restore faith among the deeply shaken Christian community, says the rector of the Shrine of Paray-le-Monial in eastern France, who initiated a conference in Rome titled, “Repairing the Irreparable.”
Listening to and supporting victims on the psychological, financial, and legal levels “is absolutely essential, but not sufficient. Some victims also ask the Church to honor the distinctly spiritual dimension of reparation because they have also been harmed in their souls,” Father Étienne Kern told La Croix’s Gilles Donada in an interview, discussing the aims of the conference.
Participants at the May 1 – 5 conference in Rome are reflecting on the appropriate spiritual response to and reparations for the sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. What is the proper spiritual response to the abuse crisis in the Church? is the question raised at the conference.
La Croix: Repairing the irreparable… What kind of reparation are you talking about?
Father Étienne Kern: The CIASE report in October 2021 revealed the extent of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in France. Following this, the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation was established to listen to and support victims on the psychological, financial, and legal levels. This is absolutely essential, but not sufficient. Some victims also ask the Church to honor the distinctly spiritual dimension of reparation because they have also been harmed in their souls.
[Further reading: New report validates France’s Church sex abuse commission, says top official]
What form could this reparation take?
I hope this conference will provide answers, without falling into spiritualization. Our goal is to share convictions and provide spiritual and practical guidance that will help us to develop this spiritual dimension – which we feel is currently inadequate. It is about honoring this dimension by caring for the victims, and nurturing and strengthening the Christian people who remain deeply shaken and scandalized. As the rector of the Shrine of Paray-le-Monial, I am convinced that it is a special place of consolation for the victims, and that devotion to the Heart of Jesus can illuminate a spiritual, reparative approach for the entire Christian people.
In what way?
The word “reparation” is explicitly used during the apparitions of Christ to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. The Lord shows His heart and reaffirms His love, at a time marked by Jansenism, which portrays God as a ruthless judge, and by intellectualism, which despises faith in the name of reason. He expresses His suffering for not receiving in return the love He has for us, and complains about our ingratitude and indifference. He mentions the sacrileges committed against the “sacrament of love,” which is the Eucharist, by those who are consecrated to Him, especially priests. One can see a reference to the Affair of the Poisons and the first black masses celebrated during the reign of Louis XIV.
During the great apparition of the Sacred Heart in June 1675, Christ requested reparation for these offenses, especially through the institution of the Feast of the Sacred Heart, frequent communion, and Eucharistic adoration. The 19th century focused on the penitential dimension of reparation, even falling into a certain dolorism, which contributed to making it obsolete during the 20th century – before its value and relevance were rediscovered in light of recent scandals.
What connection do you make between the reparation highlighted in the worship of the Sacred Heart and current events?
The complaints of abuse victims echo the complaint that Jesus expressed to Margaret Mary Alacoque. Jesus is offended by sacrileges against His sacramental body. He is also offended by sexual assaults against the most vulnerable. Did He not say that what we do to the least of these, we do to Him? It is also troubling to note that abuses often occur in a sacramental context, related to Mass or confession. Pope Francis speaks of “sacrilege” and “betrayal of the body of the Lord” by abusive priests and even compares their actions to a “black mass.” That is why I cannot help but think that the message of Paray-le-Monial has something to say to the Church on these issues, even if everything is not yet clear. This is precisely why a conference is being organized.
The CIASE report revealed the systemic dimension of the abuses that were perpetrated. No one is outside the problem or above it. We are all affected, whether we want it or not, by this culture of abuse, to borrow Pope Francis’s expression. Thus, many of the speakers at this conference belong to congregations or communities – including mine – involved in one way or another in scandals. None are immune, mine no more than the others. But it is from within that another movement can begin.
What movement?
At the time of exile, the Jewish people turned to God in magnificent expiatory prayers where they expressed their shame and implored divine forgiveness and mercy. It is this humble attitude of a “broken heart” before God that we find in Saint Thérèse of Lisieux or Saint Faustina, the apostle of Divine Mercy. A personal anecdote: I was a parish priest in Aix-en-Provence at the time of what was called the “Barbarin affair” (named after the Archbishop of Lyon who was accused of not reporting abusive priests, before being acquitted by the courts). I was struck by the strong attendance of parishioners at a time of reparative adoration that we proposed then, as if the Christian people, shaken by the scandal, intuitively felt the need to kneel before God, implore His mercy, and repair His wounded Heart by giving love for love.