BishopAccountability.org
	O'Malley to Hold Service at St. Patricks By Nadine Wandzilak Stoneham Sun [Stoneham MA] May 17, 2006 http://www2.townonline.com/stoneham/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=495796 Cardinal Sean O'Malley will visit Stoneham next Friday, May 26, for a prayer service as part of a "Pilgrimage of repentance and hope: a novena to the Holy Spirit" in nine communities that experienced "an especially painful history of sexual abuse of children by priests." Paul Shanley, a defrocked Roman Catholic priest in jail after being convicted of indecent assault and battery and rape of a child while he was at a Newton parish in the 1980's, served at St Patrick's parish here as his first assignment, Rev. Bill Schmidt of St. Patrick's said Monday. O'Malley will speak at the prayer service at St. Patrick's Church and the local parish will ask the family of a victim of clergy sexual abuse to talk about the years the abuse was held as a secret, Schmidt said. Victims and families share two emotions, Schmidt said: shame and isolation. "They do not have to be ashamed," he said. "Cardinal O'Malley, recognizing the abuse of young people that took place at Saint Patrick Parish during the 1960's, will make Saint Patrick Parish the first parish that he visits as part of the Novena," Schmidt wrote in Sunday's church bulletin. Through the pilgrimage, O'Malley is trying to say that financial settlements the church made over instances of abuse were not the church's final response, Schmidt said. The novena - novena from the Latin for nine, Schmidt explained, will begin on May 25, Ascension Thursday, with a Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston and end with a Mass celebrating the Vigil of Pentecost at St. Columbkille in Brighton on June 3. Between those Masses, services will be held in parishes in each of the five regions of the Archdiocese of Boston "to allow as many people as possible to participate," according to the archdiocese in a press release. The service is being arranged by the office supporting those who have been abused, according to Schmidt. The local parish will provide the music for the service, he said. "Cardinal O'Malley extends a special invitation to victims of sexual abuse to participate in this prayer service," according to the notice in the St. Patrick's bulletin. "Family members and parishioners who have experienced deep pain with the shocking revelations of the past five years" and the parish at large "are also invited to join in this prayer for healing." "The services will include a public acknowledgement of the sins and crimes committed," according to the Archdiocese, "and an act of reparation that will enable the Cardinal and clergy to join in an expression of repentance for priests and bishops whose actions and inactions gravely harmed the lives of children and young people entrusted to their care." "'Publicly acknowledging the Church's faults and failures is an important element of asking forgiveness of those who have been harmed by the Church,'" the release quotes O'Malley. "The sexual abuse crisis has caused intense suffering for survivors and their families and has been a source of shame and sorrow for our entire Church community. The sexual crimes against children by priests and the Church's initial failure to respond have fractured the essential spiritual connection necessary for the bonds of faith to flourish in our parishes and community." O'Malley has "made it a priority to create safe environments in our churches and schools and to continue to provide support to survivors and all people who have suffered as a result of clergy sexual abuse," according to a note at the end of the press release, "by working with law enforcement agencies and community professionals" to report and investigate instances of sexual abuse and to develop and implement prevention and education programs through the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach. The prayer service at St. Patrick's Church will begin at 8 p.m. Schmidt estimated that it would last about an hour.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.