Document Archive

Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua
Archbishop of Philadelphia

Homily at Saint Denis Church, Havertown
16 June 2002

Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Lord,

First of all I wish to thank Monsignor Marino, Father McCaffery and the new priest, Father Gallagher, for the warm welcome they gave me this morning. I am truly delighted to be here once again at Saint Denis Parish, in this very beautiful Church. I also thank you, my beloved faithful, for the very warm welcome you gave me. The applause has deeply touched me. This is a very difficult and painful talk that I begin, a kind of homily. But it is one which, through you at Saint Denis, that I speak to all the faithful throughout the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, in expressing my feelings after these last days in Dallas which I am sure many of you watched on television.

Many times during the past several months during this crisis, I felt as today's gospel said 'that Jesus looked out on the crowd and saw them troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.' People have suffered a great deal during the past months, but we must remember that Jesus is still with us and our faith is in him, not in any one person. I promised you that, like Jesus, I will try to be a faithful shepherd, and I do take compassion on the crowd and see your suffering. I will try to do everything possible to heal that pain and suffering. This past meeting that we had in Dallas, without any doubt, was the most painful and difficult meeting of my fifty-three years as a priest, of which 22 years were as a bishop.

At that meeting, on two days, I heard stories of many victims that were heart-wrenching. I tried to feel their pain, although I told them I could not feel it as much as they did, because they were the ones that experienced it. I, and the other bishops as you know, went to Dallas in order to achieve certain goals as a united body, and to commit ourselves to begin to carry out those goals. Just briefly, what did we go there for? You have a general sense of it, of all that has happened in the past months since January. The first goal was to assure all children, whom I love so much and young people whom I love so much, their parents and all parents, the whole church and all of the community, that as much as is humanly possible, we will protect all children and young people. We went there to promote a healing and reconciliation of victims and their families. We went there to restore the trust that you the faithful once had with such glory and so traditionally in your priests, and in the Church. We know that the majority, the overwhelming majority of the priests have been very faithful. And they deserve your trust. We went there to restore the credibility, of the faithful and all of society, in the moral authority of the Church which has been severely damaged. Not that we are teaching wrong, we have sowed the moral authority given to us by Christ, but greatly injured has been peoples trust in the truth that we utter.

As you know, the meeting on the last day and after much discussion, has produced a document. It is called a Charter, the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. That charter is a document that is to guide bishops with everyone, with youth, the lay faithful, to guide us into the future in carrying out all of our goals. You probably have heard so many times the core position of that charter, which is so necessary but difficult for us. That core position I wish to communicate so there is no doubt in anyone's mind, in your mind here and as representatives of the whole Archdiocese, of anyone in the Archdiocese....the position that after long, long discussion we all arrived at. That core position of the charter states that any priest who has committed and it is proven that he has committed even one act of sexual abuse of a minor will be permanently removed from any ministry in the Church. I have to be honest with you that it was very painful for me to support that provision and I did support it. This provision you know under the colloquial term, zero tolerance. But painful though it is to support it, still at the same time, I had to balance my great love for all priests with the common good of the Church. That has to be the highest priority.

What do I mean by the common good of the Church? I mean that the whole mission of the Church, and in this instance, it means the protection of children and youth, it means the plight of the victims, it means the support of our priests, to uplift their spirits as they have been so severely hurt, the good priests. It means the confidence and trust of you, the faithful. It means the credibility of this Church. It means the avoidance of any future grave scandal like this. That common good has to prevail over individuals, and that is why we had to support that particular provision of removing from any priestly ministry a priest who committed even one act of sexual abuse against a minor. This policy regarding priests who committed a sexual abuse against a minor, this has been and is already the policy of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. So I can proclaim to you today, and to all the faithful throughout the Archdiocese, I can tell you honestly, that as far as I know, at the present moment, there is no priest guilty of the sexual abuse of a minor who is in any priestly ministry in this Archdiocese of Philadelphia. My beloved faithful, at the same time, I tell you from my own heart, like any parent who still loves and supports a son or daughter who may have failed seriously, I continue to love and support my priestly sons who have fallen. As Christians, we must all show a Christlike compassion and forgiveness for these priests and we must pray for them.

The meeting in Dallas came to a conclusion with an overwhelming vote. 239 bishops voted for the charter containing this core provision and many other provisions, and 13 voted against, which is practically a unanimous number. It brought the meeting to a conclusion. But that charter and the conclusion of the meeting is only a beginning. Now the work begins.

It marks a beginning and as a result of that sense of beginning, all of us bishops in Dallas made a pledge, a corporate pledge, which is incorporated in the charter. And you can get a copy of that charter. I am sure it is being printed already, it is on the Internet and you can read it yourselves. But here today, I want before you what I pledged in Dallas with all the other bishops and I want to recommit with this pledge that we made. And this is what is contained in the charter, the pledge:

By what we have begun here today, by what we have stated and agreed to,

We pledge most solemnly to one another and to you, God's people , that we will work to our utmost for the protection of children and youth.

We pledge that we will devote to this goal the resources and personnel necessary to accomplish it.

We pledge that we will do our best to ordain to the priesthood and put into positions of trust only those who share this commitment to protecting children and youth.

We pledge that we will work toward healing and reconciliation for those sexually abused by clerics.

We make these pledges with a humbling sense of our own limitations, relying on the help of God and the support of his faithful priests and people to work with us to fulfill them.

Finally, I wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the prayers that you have offered for us, the bishops, for the success of the meeting. I give you my heartfelt thanks for the love and support that you have shown to your parish priests who have been so faithful. I give my thanks for all of you, the faithful, for preserving your faith, remaining committed to the church. Together, truly together, we will rise again and rebuild the church. And in the months to come, we plan to begin that rebuilding, but it will require your prayers, your energy and your commitment too. We are the church. Not you, not I, not the pope, we are the church. The Pope, the bishops, the priests, the deacons and you, the faithful laity. After all, in the whole church of over a billion Catholics, you constitute 99.992% and we need your help and your prayers and we will become a great Church again. And so today, I ask you to join me in praying to the Holy Spirit for the guidance, for the strength to work together to rebuild again this Church, this beautiful Church of Jesus Christ... to rebuild it so that all of us, as I said on Holy Thursday, so that all of us without any shame whatsoever can proudly say ' I am proud to be a Catholic.' And so that all of us priests, can say without any shame, fear or embarrassment 'I am proud to be a Catholic priest.'

God bless you.