A review by mcreed06
Faith, by Jennifer Haigh
3.0
I happened to be reading this book when Pope Francis’ apology to survivors of clergy sex abuse was widely reported in the news. The Pope acknowledged two things: 1. the sexual abuse itself and 2. the cover up by the Church. Accompanying the public apology was a call for Catholic bishops to be held accountable for the protection of minors.
"Today the heart of the Church looks into the eyes of Jesus in these boys and girls and wants to weep," said Pope Francis in his homily at the morning Mass, according to a transcript released by the Vatican. "I humbly ask for forgiveness."
"I beg for your forgiveness, too, for the sin of omission on the part of the Church leaders who didn't respond adequately to reports of abuse," the pontiff said. "This led to ever greater suffering…and endangered other minors who were at risk."
Some were not quite satisfied:
The Pope says the church should "make reparations" to victims. That's secondary. Stopping abuse and protecting children comes first. And sadly, no child on earth is safer today because of this meeting.
With or without church officials, abuse victims can heal themselves. But only with church officials' help can children protect themselves from child molesting clerics. That's where the Pope must focus. And that's where he's refusing to act.
"Francis must take decisive action right now, action to expose and remove clerics who commit and conceal heinous crimes against the most vulnerable," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
"Children are being assaulted by clerics right now," she added.
According to the Wall Street Journal,
“In March, the pope named eight members to a commission that will advise him on how to combat clerical sexual abuse and assist victims. The Vatican said the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, coordinated by Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley, met Sunday to discuss logistical issues and add new members.”
While I agree with Barbara Blaine that the focus needs to be on stopping abuse from here on out, I take the Wall Street Journal’s report as to mean the Pope is taking steps to address the problem. The saddest thing is that nothing, not money, not a heartfelt apology, nothing can take back the horrible moment when an innocent child is abused.
In Spring of 2002, I was too wrapped up with my infant daughter to pay much attention to the news. I vaguely remember hearings bits and pieces, and receiving a well written letter from our local Parish addressing the issue. The letter outlined the steps the Archdiocese of Atlanta takes in response to a claim of abuse. By the time my daughter entered Kindergarten at a parochial Catholic School in Fall of 2007, the aftermath of Spring 2002 was obvious everywhere.
1. No employee of the school or church was allowed to gives rides to and from school with a student (unless the student is his/her own child). Under no circumstances were there any exceptions made. That was that. This meant that our family could not carpool regularly with another family who was close to us. The mother was the school nurse. In the book Faith, the priest Arthur Breen drove the mother Kathy Conlon and the boy Aiden around town. That would be unheard of in this time.
2. Not once was a foot stepped in the rectory through my now 12-year-old’s seven-year run from Kindergarten to 6th grade. In Faith, the boy Aiden hangs out at the rectory and watches TV in the priest’s bedroom. That part was far-fetched. I remember going into the priests’ rectory with my class when I was a student at Catholic school, and never did we venture beyond the living room.
3. Teachers at the school were not allowed to touch the children in any way other than in the most superficial of ways My son had difficulty tucking in his shirt and buckling his belt. His 2nd grade teacher said, “I had another one of my students show him and do it for him since I can’t do it.” Long, long gone were the days when students were subject to certain methods of stern Catholic School disciplinarians. Today, citations work pretty well in instilling discipline.
4. To volunteer at the school and interact with other students, a stack of paperwork had to be filled out, signed and filed.
As parents, we occasionally complained and felt inconvenienced by these rules, especially the carpool one as a lot of the faculty have sons and daughters in the school, and could not bring friends home for play dates, sleepovers, or carpool. However, if these rules protect one child from being abused, then of course, they are worth it.
As for the book itself, Jennifer Haigh wrote about a very uncomfortable subject, one that many people don’t want to talk about. It was a brave, well-written book with a twist in the end. Haigh captured the perception of priests very well throughout the book. One among many passages about priests:
“The crowded Masses, the hundreds of confessions, the sickbed visits; the extra hours of sermon preparation, in a vain attempt to avoid repeating what’s been said a thousand times before. The hectic pace [of Holy Week] is shocking to man who feels marginally useful most of the time. Art understood that to most of his flock, his services were not essential. At their baptisms, marriages and funerals his presence was expected, but in the intervening years they scarcely gave him a thought.”
I am also glad that Jennifer Haigh clarified that not all priests take a vow of poverty. That is a very common misunderstanding. Monks take a vow of poverty but diocesan priests generally do not. Just recently, it had to be explained to certain people that the ‘vow of poverty’ was not a sound argument against the Archbishop’s moving into a house in an exclusive neighborhood. But that’s a whole different subject.
As for the Catholic Church, it continues on.
"Today the heart of the Church looks into the eyes of Jesus in these boys and girls and wants to weep," said Pope Francis in his homily at the morning Mass, according to a transcript released by the Vatican. "I humbly ask for forgiveness."
"I beg for your forgiveness, too, for the sin of omission on the part of the Church leaders who didn't respond adequately to reports of abuse," the pontiff said. "This led to ever greater suffering…and endangered other minors who were at risk."
Some were not quite satisfied:
The Pope says the church should "make reparations" to victims. That's secondary. Stopping abuse and protecting children comes first. And sadly, no child on earth is safer today because of this meeting.
With or without church officials, abuse victims can heal themselves. But only with church officials' help can children protect themselves from child molesting clerics. That's where the Pope must focus. And that's where he's refusing to act.
"Francis must take decisive action right now, action to expose and remove clerics who commit and conceal heinous crimes against the most vulnerable," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.
"Children are being assaulted by clerics right now," she added.
According to the Wall Street Journal,
“In March, the pope named eight members to a commission that will advise him on how to combat clerical sexual abuse and assist victims. The Vatican said the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, coordinated by Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley, met Sunday to discuss logistical issues and add new members.”
While I agree with Barbara Blaine that the focus needs to be on stopping abuse from here on out, I take the Wall Street Journal’s report as to mean the Pope is taking steps to address the problem. The saddest thing is that nothing, not money, not a heartfelt apology, nothing can take back the horrible moment when an innocent child is abused.
In Spring of 2002, I was too wrapped up with my infant daughter to pay much attention to the news. I vaguely remember hearings bits and pieces, and receiving a well written letter from our local Parish addressing the issue. The letter outlined the steps the Archdiocese of Atlanta takes in response to a claim of abuse. By the time my daughter entered Kindergarten at a parochial Catholic School in Fall of 2007, the aftermath of Spring 2002 was obvious everywhere.
1. No employee of the school or church was allowed to gives rides to and from school with a student (unless the student is his/her own child). Under no circumstances were there any exceptions made. That was that. This meant that our family could not carpool regularly with another family who was close to us. The mother was the school nurse. In the book Faith, the priest Arthur Breen drove the mother Kathy Conlon and the boy Aiden around town. That would be unheard of in this time.
2. Not once was a foot stepped in the rectory through my now 12-year-old’s seven-year run from Kindergarten to 6th grade. In Faith, the boy Aiden hangs out at the rectory and watches TV in the priest’s bedroom. That part was far-fetched. I remember going into the priests’ rectory with my class when I was a student at Catholic school, and never did we venture beyond the living room.
3. Teachers at the school were not allowed to touch the children in any way other than in the most superficial of ways My son had difficulty tucking in his shirt and buckling his belt. His 2nd grade teacher said, “I had another one of my students show him and do it for him since I can’t do it.” Long, long gone were the days when students were subject to certain methods of stern Catholic School disciplinarians. Today, citations work pretty well in instilling discipline.
4. To volunteer at the school and interact with other students, a stack of paperwork had to be filled out, signed and filed.
As parents, we occasionally complained and felt inconvenienced by these rules, especially the carpool one as a lot of the faculty have sons and daughters in the school, and could not bring friends home for play dates, sleepovers, or carpool. However, if these rules protect one child from being abused, then of course, they are worth it.
As for the book itself, Jennifer Haigh wrote about a very uncomfortable subject, one that many people don’t want to talk about. It was a brave, well-written book with a twist in the end. Haigh captured the perception of priests very well throughout the book. One among many passages about priests:
“The crowded Masses, the hundreds of confessions, the sickbed visits; the extra hours of sermon preparation, in a vain attempt to avoid repeating what’s been said a thousand times before. The hectic pace [of Holy Week] is shocking to man who feels marginally useful most of the time. Art understood that to most of his flock, his services were not essential. At their baptisms, marriages and funerals his presence was expected, but in the intervening years they scarcely gave him a thought.”
I am also glad that Jennifer Haigh clarified that not all priests take a vow of poverty. That is a very common misunderstanding. Monks take a vow of poverty but diocesan priests generally do not. Just recently, it had to be explained to certain people that the ‘vow of poverty’ was not a sound argument against the Archbishop’s moving into a house in an exclusive neighborhood. But that’s a whole different subject.
As for the Catholic Church, it continues on.