Last August, the Church in America was shaken by the revelations of the grand jury in Pennsylvania.  Bishop Knestout had been bishop in Richmond for only seven months.  The honeymoon was over! 

To his credit, Bishop Knestout took a proactive approach and spoke in smaller groupings with his priests across the diocese.  Then he met with the lay people at 12 different locations.  He listened.  He apologized for the failings of the bishops in leadership.  And he accepted the responsibility of trying to do something here in our diocese.  He desired to be completely transparent.  He also wanted to do what he could to help victims begin to heal.

With that in mind, he hired a third party to go through all the records of the diocese to be sure any credible and substantiated cases of abuse of minors were disclosed.  To that end, a list of the names of priests will be published within the next few weeks.  This is not meant to avoid responsibility or to point fingers.  Many of those abused as minors feel tremendous shame and are often in denial.  As such, healing of these terrible wounds cannot really begin.  The list is meant to open discussions that will allow that healing to begin.

For many of us, this will bring up feelings of anger, shame, and disbelief that such things could ever have happened.  But they did.  Nonetheless, our task—even as a wounded Church—is to proclaim Jesus Christ and His Gospel.  As Paul reminded us two weeks ago, “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it.”  Healing CAN come about, but only if the love Paul proclaimed last week is brought to bear on the whole situation.  We still have a message to share and a Savior to proclaim—and the challenge to face and to do our best to model forgiveness, healing, and love.