HOMILY OF MOST REVEREND ALFRED A. SCHLERT
Weekend of Aug 25 and 26, 2018
I thank your pastor for allowing me this time to come and pray with you and speak with you this morning. I particularly wanted to come to this parish because this community has tragically intersected with many priests on our diocesan list of priest perpetrators of abuse, and parishioners here have borne the brunt of criminal and perverse priests.
For weeks since reading the Statewide Grand Jury Report of clergy abuse of minors in Pennsylvania, I have felt extreme sadness, regret, and shame. The perverse manner in which the Sacrament of Holy Orders was used to gain access to youth to steal their innocence by the very men who were called to preserve it is crushing.
Now that the Report has been released, I am free to openly express my thoughts on the horrible information it contains. As a Bishop, I am the link to the Diocese’s past while shepherding it in the present and guiding it into the future. It is my responsibility at this point in history to address the heinous actions of the past that, sadly, are still felt today. It is my duty to respond to the abhorrent behavior of decades ago, committed by priests long dead and others long removed from ministry, as well as to those incidents that you have read about recently that were not part of the Grand Jury Report.
My first response is to ask forgiveness from all those who are victims and survivors, as well as from their families. I offer my profound apologies to all whose lives have been impacted by this criminal behavior. It is impossible for the great majority of us to truly understand the burden victim-survivors have carried for years, mostly in silence and hidden pain. I seek your forgiveness because the Church, which should have been the source of your strength, instead was the cause of your tremendous suffering. Perhaps the measures the Diocese has now taken for several years to prevent, report, and be transparent about abuse in the Church will in some small way ease the mistrust that you legitimately feel about the bishops of the Church.
I again urge anyone who has been a victim of abuse to report it to law enforcement. If your abuse occurred in the Catholic Church, please contact our Victim Assistance Coordinator as well. We need to hear about your experience in order to create a safe environment in the Church. Our Catholic Community cannot begin to heal if victim-survivors are not in the process of healing, since you are an integral part of our family.
I ask the forgiveness of our devoted Religious Sisters and all of you, the laity, who have remained steadfast in your faith in the midst of human corruption and error. No Catholic should have to endure the shame that you endure because of the sinful actions of those priests who failed to bolster and confirm your faith. You have been heroic, even when shepherds-turned-wolves infested some of your parishes and schools.
I also feel the need to apologize to the vast majority of our good and faithful, Priests, Deacons, and Seminarians of the Diocese of Allentown. This scourge and scandal in the Church has made their vocation so much more difficult. It is heartbreaking for me to see them treated with suspicion solely because they have heard the Lord’s call to serve Him. It is unfathomable to me that ordained men could cause such extreme harm to the very flock that they were ordained to protect and serve. I am so grateful for the commitment of our current clergy to holiness and for tending to the scandalous wounds of our people while they themselves have been wounded.
To those who are open to hearing my words and even those who may not be right now: I know it will take time to heal, but please offer us another opportunity to regain your trust through the progress we have made over the past 15 years. We have implemented many changes in that time, all of which are designed to keep children safe. We have added background checks, training for adults, education for children, clear policies, and strict codes of conduct, as well as more rigorous standards and training for candidates preparing for the Priesthood. We have formalized assistance for victims and named safe environment coordinators. We also take immediate action to deal with allegations: removing the clergy member from ministry, notifying law enforcement, and being transparent about our actions in cooperation with law enforcement. I apologize that our standards of transparency were not adequate in the past, and we have changed that. I hope my actions in immediately removing and reporting accused priests to law enforcement since becoming the Bishop of Allentown demonstrate to you my commitment to protecting children.
In a theological image, the Diocese is the Bishop’s Bride. It is why he wears an episcopal ring: to signify the nuptial bond he has with his Diocese, his portion of the vineyard to safeguard. The Bishop has the obligation and profound honor to defend his flock and lead his people unrelentingly to Christ. It is my responsibility at this time in history to fulfill Christ’s command to Feed my sheep.
In the past, the Church did not always deal with abuse and abusers in the way it does now. While seeking your forgiveness for the past, I pledge my entire being to shepherding our local church through these hurt-filled times. I pledge that our Diocese will do the right thing to protect children, to care for and support victims and survivors. I will continue to do everything I can to protect the flock of Christ entrusted to me to the best of my ability, fully aware of my human inadequacies. In the years I was Vicar General under the supervision of two bishops, any accusation of abuse that came to us was reported to law enforcement. Since I became Bishop of Allentown on August 31, 2017, I have fully cooperated with law enforcement, including immediately reporting two accusations of abuse by priests and removing them from ministry.
Together with God’s help, we can ensure that the sinful actions of the past will have no place in the present, and that they will not define us in the future. I understand that not everyone will accept my assurances, given the way Bishops have eroded the trust of our people. My only hope is that we can repair the trust of our Catholic family of faith and the wider community by virtue of our action today and in the future. To those who will hear these words as hollow, or as too little, too late, I ask your forgiveness nonetheless. I can only assure you that they come from the depth of a pastor’s heart.
In today’s Gospel Peter says “you have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:69). As we continue to heal and make sense of this Report, we cannot forget who is truly at the center of our life of faith, Jesus Christ, truly present in the Holy Eucharist. In these difficult times, we turn toward Christ for strength and healing.
Saint Augustine, a Bishop of the Fourth Century, taught: “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are Anger and Courage: anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.” It is appropriate that we have a righteous, holy anger. The kind Jesus had when His Father’s house was being defiled. To that, we -- beginning with me -- must add courage to work for the continuing vigilance regarding our response to victims and the handling of abuse allegations so that it produces hope in all our people.
May God, who alone can heal the deep wounds that each person uniquely feels, bring us to a renewed commitment to holiness and unity as a Roman Catholic Family of Faith. Likewise, we seek the intercession of our Diocesan Patroness, Mary, Mother of the Church, who was no stranger to adversity, that we might follow God’s Will faithfully.
