Sometimes all you can do is to put your mouth to the dust and wait.” That’s a counsel from the Book of Lamentations, and while perhaps not the best response to the recent revelations of clerical sexual abuse and cover-up in the Catholic Church, it seems the only helpful response available to me as a Catholic priest today. I’ve been hesitant to respond other than through prayer to this current situation, for three reasons.
My first hesitation has to do with the seeming futility of yet another apology and breast-beating. Since the report on sexual abuse and clerical cover-up was released in Pennsylvania a few weeks back, there have been apologies issued by virtually every diocese, every parish and every priest in America, with a further one from the Pope himself.
