"There is no duplicity in him"

While doing my morning devotions at Blessed is She, I found today's gospel reading especially helpful. Particularly John 1:47, "Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, 'Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.'" This Nathaniel is also called Bartholomew (his surname or what we call last name). Today is the feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle.

"There is no duplicity in him." As I have grappled with anger and sadness this month in the wake of the scandals rocking my beloved Roman Catholic Church, I have prayed for the Lord to send us honest and transparent and Holy shepherds to comfort the wounded and suffering Body of Christ. I have prayed for men with "no duplicity" in them.

I know these men exist, I do not have to go back to St. Bartholomew's time to find them. I have been blessed to know them. But the failure of so many clergy over such a long period of time is soul crushing. When the unfaithful shepherds are removed from ministry to serve a life of penance and prayer (or be disciplined by secular authorities), who will shepherd the flock? Who will raise holy hands to heaven to consecrate the bread and wine that we may partake of the Bread of Life? Pope Emeritus Benedict's prediction may come true in this country. We may see a smaller Church, at least for a while as we go through a rebuilding and renewal period. I pray that the Lord wills that this rebuilding and renewal begin soon! But there is much pain and sorrow to face first.

I remember my dear departed pastor, Father John, telling us in a homily: "When outside forces beseige the Church, the Church rises up stronger to do battle with them. When the outside battles are few, the Devil takes advantage of the deceptive peace with the World to corrupt and destroy the Church from within." That rings so true at this moment in the US and other nations where Christians are not being attacked and martyred for their faith.

While Christians in the middle East, China, and other parts of the world are suffering exile, imprisonment, torture, and death rather than renounce their faith, some Church leaders in the West have been lulled to sleep by the Devil and are convinced that they can sin with impunity while wearing the garments of their office and a face of false holiness. The Lord Jesus sees their sins and their deceit. He has seen all of it, no matter where it happened or how well it was hidden from others. And still it continued for years.

We are the Church Suffering, but we need to become the Church Militant. Our Lord has waited all this time for the silence to be broken, for Clerics and others who did not engage in these sins but knew of them to bring them and the perpetrators to light. In the Confiteor, we ask the Lord's forgiveness for both what we have done and what we have failed to do. It is way past time for the culture of duplicity to end and the wounds to be uncovered. As hard as these revelations are to stomach, both the sins and the sinners must be exposed before the survivors and the Church can heal.

Accountability cannot stop with priests. I have read that the 2002 policies, which we naively thought would end the abuse problems, did not require Bishops to be examined at all. Thus we have the spectacle of individuals rising to the level of Bishop, Archbishop, and Cardinal while hiding serious sin under the cloak of office. Unless individuals at every level are required to be accountable, the Devil will continue to find ways to perpetuate a culture of sin and duplicity.

I am participating in the #sackclothandashes initiative (described here). It is my way of coping with the deluge of feelings and the sleepless nights I have had since reading the Grand Jury Report from Pennsylvania. My Bishop addressed the issue here. He has also set up a hotline for reporting and assigned a lay woman to receive the reports. You can find that here.

May the Blessed Mother of God wrap her arms around all the suffering survivors, known and unknown, and weep with them and with us for as long as it takes for healing to occur.