Julie Edwards says the scandal of abuse perpetrated on innocent young lives has taken away our peace of mind, shocked us to the core.

Over the last few weeks the Church has been on my mind. I'm deeply troubled. As a Catholic you couldn't help but be. The scandal of abuse perpetrated on innocent young lives has taken away peace of mind, shocked us to the core. And I'm wrestling with the fact that somehow we're all tainted, all implicated – and therefore we all need to stand up and do something about it.

The way I see it is that the Church exists to bear witness to this: that people, ordinary people, matter – they matter a lot; that life is stronger than death and that love will triumph. It's important that this message about who God is and who we are is kept alive – and the Church has had a key role in doing that.

So I'm concerned that the very important truth that the Church exists to point to, to encourage and support people in – that God is love, that God is as close as close, that God is right here amongst us, in the every day details of our lives – that this might suffer because of the sins of the Church.

I know the argument that comes next. It goes something like this: who is the Church anyhow? There are lots of good people, lots of good priests and lots of good things happening in the Church. That we are a Church of saints and sinners. That the Church is, in fact, alive and well in many places…..

And while all the above is true – there are great people, great communities, great institutions who are part of the Church – as a universal body we are in trouble. Deep trouble.

I would love our Church leadership to stop, and take stock right now, and do something big and drastic about the state of things. We need to announce a time of mourning and penance. We need to do something symbolic – rend our garments, wear ashes, prostrate ourselves and beg forgiveness.

But I'm reminded of one of the readings for Lent from Isaiah. ‘Is this the sort of fast that pleases me? … Hanging your head like a reed, lying down on sackcloth and ashes? … Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me – it is the Lord who speaks – to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the one you see naked and not turn from your own kin?'

So alongside our symbolic demonstration we need to act in the most practical of ways to right wrongs, to address the root causes of the problems we face. Forgiveness follows upon repentance and reparation. Reparation demands honesty, transparency and accountability. We need to be open and defence-less. If the Church loses property, wealth, status – so be it. It's not for these things that we exist. It might just be our liberation.

Then it dawns on me that what is required can't and won't come solely from leaders. We are all the Church and we all need to rise up and deal with the brutal and shameful truth of what has emerged – as individuals, parish communities, dioceses, organisations, right through to the Vatican. Some might say that we, you and I, are not responsible for what's happened, for the state of things. But if we still find ourselves part of the institutional Church, then we too must bow our heads in weeping and mourning for what has been done. We too must say ‘Enough!' We too must say we want to be part of a renewed Church. We too must act.

In doing so we need to face a fundamental question: how did all this happen? No one would have believed the extent of the abuse that has emerged. But it didn't come from nowhere. So we need to delve deeply into every dimension of Church life. Nothing must be left unexamined.

When we see that the abuse being reported is not about an odd case here and there (shocking as that would be) but rather that it is everywhere, we have to acknowledge that something is deeply rotten.

This is not a time for rationalising, explaining, defending, contextualising. It's not a time to say that someone is out to get us, to discredit us – no, we did that all by ourselves. For the universal Church (and not just here and there) it's a time for frank and full admissions of guilt and responsibility; it's a time for humble and contrite confessions; it's a time for heartfelt and comprehensive apologies; it's a time to put victims where they always should have been – first and foremost in our concerns; it's a time to be truly and fully accountable for our actions; it's a time to ensure that perpetrators are dealt with appropriately and in a timely fashion; it's a time to open our doors, our books, our policies and practices to the scrutiny of the world – to examine our structures, our culture, our model of leadership, and to welcome others to do this with us; it's time to shine the light of the gospel on who we are and what we do, bringing transparency and accountability to all aspects of our being and activity. We have to be prepared to repent, be converted and change.

Julie Edwards is CEO of Jesuit Social Services, Australia Province, Society of Jesus

Source: http://www.express.org.au/article.aspx?aeid=20654