Should A New Religious Order Be Founded To Make Reparation For The Dec

[Gabriela]

Hopefully this will work... I've never made a poll in here before!

It worked!  :flex:

[BarbTherese]

Wonderful and needed charism.  Such a charism (if that is the word) has crossed my mind for a while now.  

 

[nikita92]

It wouldnt hurt!!

[carmenchristi]

I think the Holy Spirit decides these things. Didn't vote.

[PadrePioOfPietrelcino]

I said no, simply by the description I think it's too narrow. I would expect as the Church fixes her mistakes and better men are formed and ordained then this NEED will diminish a the abused and a users die. I could see a role for sexually abused in general, I could see a special focus with those abused by people within to Church Structure, You could even maybe say the charism is to providing care, love, and support to those who have been hurt by a lack of understanding of the theology of the body...I also agree with CarmenChristi, it's better to test a charism with a Bishop than the PM VS, although we are awesome.

[maximillion]

I don't think there is anything wrong in asking people their opinion.................

It would be up to the Holy Spirit anyway, whether we were asked our opinions or not.

 

I said yes, because it has been on my heart for some time and I have been actively praying for such an Order to come about....

I would agree that maybe it could be wider....reparation for the damage caused by all sexual abuse, not exclusively that associated with the Church.

 

I said cloistered because reparation to my way of thinking needs to be carried out in that circumstance,  the quality and nature of prayer that one associates with the cloister.

[carmenchristi]

Well, if we are going to hypothesize, I would say that such a community could pose some problems. I don't think it would be appropriate to be publicly announced as the charism. The "congregation" could be dedicated to reparation and could privately (as in, in the constitutions but not in the information that it shares openly with everyone) be dedicated more specifically to this intention.  I agree with PPP that reparation for the sexual abuse of clergy is too narrow a sector, and is hopefully something that will not be an issue for the amount of time that it takes to found a congregation. Doing so seems to presuppose that it's something that is going to be sticking around, and even though a congregation could pray in reparation for past sins, I think it would be very difficult to present this to the public. 

[Gabriela]

I got the idea partly from here:

 

"On June 25th the Canons Regular of the New

Jerusalem will celebrate the tenth anniversary of our juridical

foundation as a religious community. Even from before that

beginning a significant spiritual reality of our foundation has

been making a permanent act of reparation for the apostasy of

the Augustinian canons who once had pastoral care of the

great medieval Marian Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham in

England."

 

Read the whole article here: http://canonsregular.com/files/news/CRNJ%20SUMMER%20NEWSLETTER%202012.pdf

 

And partly from something that one of the sisters I interviewed said. Her moment of "knowing" that she was supposed to become a nun came while she was standing at a fence in a field behind her house. One of her family members was going through a divorce. She felt the deep tragedy of it, and suddenly thought, "Someone has to make reparation for this." She became a Passionist.

 

I agree that the charism as described could be problematic, and too narrow. I'm just interested in hearing what people have to say about it. The CRNJ (the first quote) are still making reparation for the apostasy of their brothers from centuries ago. So I don't know that time or enduringness of the transgression would have to be an issue. But the narrowness of the charism might be.

[Renee the Nunnabe]

I think this would be a wonderful charism, provided it were not limited only to make reparations for those who have been victimized within the Church. To limit the charism only to those victimized within the Church would be to limit what good such a charism could do in the world. Sexual abuse is not a Catholic problem; it is a human problem, and it is sadly rather ubiquitous. For it is ubiquitous, I think such a charism could be extended to all victims of sexual abuse or child abuse. 

 

To minister to the abuse is a wonderful and important thing; it can save lives and really turn things around. It's that reparation for the wrongs of the world committed against innocents that is important. We can't undo what has been done, but we can certainly try to keep these things from happening and try to help the victims. 

For a community to have such a charism could bring a lot of good. :heart:  

There are always things to consider: if a person was abused by a priest or other Religious or person in the Church, they may be wary of Religious. Such a community would have to be very aware of the individual issues a victim of abuse may deal with, and would have to strike that very delicate balance between helping and only exacerbating harm.  

[Renee the Nunnabe]

Contemplative orders could make reparations for the victims, and so could active orders. The difference is that the contemplative order would be praying for this and making reparations through their own lives, and the active orders may be ministering for change or even directly to the victims.  

[BarbTherese]

Why restrict to religious? My thoughts are and have been for quite a while now is that it would be good if The Church set aside a day yearly that was a day of reparation by the Universal Church for sexual abuse of children by our clergy.  A day of universal prayer and penance.  This would be good if it was on a Saturday with Exposition in all parishes - and a day especially dedicated to Our Lady.  A particular date yearly could be stated with the Saturday closest to that date being nominated - or something similar along those lines.

 

We have now convened commissioners for our Royal Commission in Australia into institutional sexual abuse of children.  While The Catholic Church is not the only institution, it is certainly a quite major one - and media reports are that accusations are still continuing to be sent for the attention of the Commission, multiple hundreds of them (besides those accusations actually to hand already).  Probably the majority of accusations might not yet have been investigated nor relate to existing investigations.  Our police forces, all state and federal, will fully investigate all recommendations to do so by the Commission. Similar to many parts of the world, there have been attempted 'cover-ups' by heirarchy as well as shifting abusing priests around, where they continued to abuse.  Cases where those victims who did complain and their families, were as good as ignored by heirarchy concerned - at best shabbily treated.  Many victims have committed suicide and some at quite young ages.

The Commission has extensive powers indeed, including Church records relating to abuse cases.  I am hoping that The Church here will be entirely open and transparent with the Commission - there are many things to learn out of these terrible events - including that the truth will find the light of day.  If not the light of day here, then in the Light of Eternity.

Frankly, I think this is something quite major that asks a day of repentance by the Universal Church.  I certainly plan personally to set a day aside regularly.  With the Royal Commission here the whole issue is very much in the forefront of my mind.  There is that saying 'cries to heaven for vengeance' - these crimes do not cry for nor deserve vengeance, nothing at all ever does - but they certainly do cry to heaven for justice and one way or the other Justice will grant it.

 

 

If anyone would like to debate my comments above, I will be copying and pasting the above, with the debating post involved to a new thread in the Debate Forum.

[BarbTherese]

BarbaraTherese: If anyone would like to debate my comments above, I will be copying and pasting the above, with the debating post involved to a new thread in the Debate Forum.

 

I am very conscious of taking this thread off topic. 

The above is not worded well at all and the whole post was written rather hastily last night.  I am not going to open a thread into Debate unless someone contacts me and advises they would like to debate the issue I raised.  With that advice to hand, I will then open a thread in Debate Forum.

[lanpingpug]

I think the Holy Spirit decides these things. Didn't vote.

 

Ditto.