Church faces its own death to resurrection story

The Catholic Church in Australia is facing its greatest crisis.

The conviction of Cardinal ­George Pell for child sexual abuse, along with the report of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, has brought shame upon it. Its moral authority has been irreparably damaged.

The intense feelings of sadness, anger and betrayal evident among many Catholic parishioners was given full expression by the Bishop of Parramatta, Vincent Long, at services over the weekend.

In an astonishing homily, he said the church needed fundamental reform. These comments, which have not been reported, went much further than any other clergymen following Pell’s conviction.

Long told a mass in western Sydney that he wanted to address “the elephant in the room”.

He acknowledged feeling “pretty awful” and “empty inside” when he heard that Pell had been convicted. He said the church had to change. “The church has to die in order to rise again,” Long said. “This is a very dark time for us but … we need to commit ourselves even more wholeheartedly to the task of dying and rising again with Christ.

“A time of crisis that we are entering into now can also be a time of kindness, opportunity, a catalyst for renewal and transformation. So, we can go forward with confidence that God is with us. We are not the church of one particular individual or personality. We are a church of Christ. We are a church of saints and sinners.”

This was a remarkable speech from one of the most senior ­Catholics in Australia. This was not the careful language we have heard from other clergymen. Long says the church’s primary concern must be the victims. He says Pell has appealed against his conviction and that the legal process has not concluded. He also acknowledges that the crimes of child sexual abuse are not just about Pell but were on a wider scale.

Long’s seven-minute speech at the end of a weekend mass were in direct response to Pell’s conviction but touched on much broader issues. He urged parishioners to look forward but stressed that the church had to be reborn: “So, I ask you for your prayers, for our clergy, certainly for myself, so that we can make this transition from crisis to opportunity. From the time of darkness to the time of light and resurrection.”

When Long had finished his remarks, the congregation applauded. Last Friday, he had issued a pastoral letter to “the people and clergy” in the Diocese of Parramatta. But his remarks delivered on Saturday afternoon were much more direct. He urged the church to end “the culture of obfuscation and cover-up” and called for greater “accountability and transparency”.

Long, 57, was born in Vietnam. Pell ordained him in 1989. He was appointed Bishop of Parramatta, representing more than 300,000 Catholics, in 2016.

He told the royal commission that he was a victim of sexual abuse by clergy as an adult after he came to Australia as a refugee in 1981. He has called for changes to church culture, customs and practices, and “justice and dignity” for victims of abuse.

The church is now confronted with a dwindling congregation wondering if they should keep the faith. The number of Australians who declare themselves Catholic continues to fall: from 27 per cent in 1996 to 22.6 per cent in 2016. There are about 750,000 students attending Catholic schools but, increasingly, many of them are not Catholic.

Anybody who attends a Catholic service these days will find that many of the priests are from Asia, Africa or South America. The clergy is ageing and not sustaining its present numbers. Instead, the church is importing priests from second and third-world countries to minister in a first-world nation, and denying those countries the church leaders they need.

The church must consider a range of reforms to address the crisis. This should include revisiting the process for the hearing and handling of complaints of sexual abuse and providing restitution to victims and their families, which may include a private or public apology, and financial compensation. The church’s response to the report of the royal commission is woefully inadequate.

More fundamental changes must be considered, including: lifting the seal of confession regarding child sexual abuse so that priests can no longer be protected by other priests; empowering lay Catholics, especially women, in the church hierarchy; allowing women to be ordained priests; ending celibacy for priests and ­allowing them to partner and marry so they can lead a more normal life, as they could for 1000 years. None of this, however, might have stopped the pathological deviancy of some priests.

It is understandable that some cannot accept that Pell is a convicted paedophile. It is legitimate to ask whether he was given a fair trial given the venting of hatred towards him because of his often cavalier and callous attitude to sexual abuse, the terrible way victims have been treated in the past and his deeply conservative views. None of this made him guilty.

But, in the final analysis, the judgment of the court must be respected. Some of those who have expressed their outrage were not present in court during the case. Nor have they heard all of the evidence as it was presented and tested because some of it was not made public.

They cannot exonerate Pell when they are not fully apprised of the case against him. They are, indeed, ignorant and insensitive.

The task for the Catholic Church, as Long says, is to recognise that it is faced with a crisis of enormous magnitude. It does not begin or end with Pell, regardless of whether his appeal succeeds.

The church must address its own sins and seize the opportunity to deliberate on fundamental changes to its structure, culture and practices.

It should look to those such as Bishop Long to lead the way.