A beautiful, thoughtful and seemingly inspired letter has been published by First Things from recently ordained young priests. It is an encouragement that sometimes out of the worst soil the most lovely flower blooms. (Thank you to “G” for calling this to our attention). The letter begins:
Reverend Synod Fathers,
On our ordination days, each of us was asked by his ordaining bishop: “Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?” Each of us answered in the affirmative, confident not in his own merits, but in the grace of God, who called each of us to priestly ministry in his Church. We are young Catholic clergy, and so we answered this question only a short time ago—some of us within the past year. And it is in the same spirit of respect and obedience that we write today. We wish to express our concern about the unfolding crisis of sexual abuse in the Church, especially the Church in the United States. Specifically, we are concerned about how this crisis relates to the Synod on the Faith, Young People, and Vocational Discernment, which is to take place in Rome in October.
Though the Synod Council could not have foreseen this when the topic was chosen three years ago, the Synod on Young People comes, to say the least, at an inopportune moment. The events of the past year demonstrate ….
Letter continues here:
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/09/a-letter-from-young-clergy
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“But we also have hope, for the Synod presents an opportunity, if you are willing to seize it. “
This letter is a request and invitation to (a specific audience) represent “Christ who alone is the answer to the challenges for our generation”.
The signers of this letter and other religious and lay people have been forced into stressful situations over the years. For too long there have been events we have had no control over. This current conglomerate of horrors is forcing some to think and behave in non-routine ways. Besides all important prayer, the last outward projection of hope left is our free speech and a very limited number of peaceable outward actions.
While this state of arousal is decades old for some, the recent escalation of alarm has left most young and old people unable to accurately identify the current stain and articulate concerns. Most are moving forward unable to master the experience…for some it is a willful blindness.
Generally, a predator will only kill what it needs and eat it right away. Interesting though, the same predator caged with prey will mass kill. That same predator is incited by it’s inbred natural tendencies in the midst of rapid movement, fear calls and scents. The killing continues until there is no movement left or something greater scares the predator into submission.
With each wave of evil comes a deepening willful blindness among the Flock…a silencing, a submission and eventual deaths.
Nature and psychology dictate that what we are seeing now can only be stopped by something greater or an altogether new approach. The mechanisms working together inside and outside the Church out match the needy flock. Today, not only are letters old and ineffective but we risk freedom of speech as workings outside and inside the Church craft a seamless highway for sexual perversions. This predator which currently knows no boundary inside and outside the Church will act on innate tendencies until movement, sounds and scents cease to exist.