Abuse
liturgy an emotional experience for many
By Blake Sittler
SASKATOON — A liturgy
was held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in downtown Saskatoon May 12
to pray for those who have been sexually abused by members of the church.
The service also included prayers for reconciliation and eventual healing
and forgiveness of the perpetrators of the crimes.
Similar liturgies were held
in Davidson, Rosetown, Humboldt, Wadena, and Unity on the same night.
The liturgy in Saskatoon
was presided over by Saskatoon Bishop Don Bolen, with some 150 people
attending.
The prayer service was a
Liturgy of the Word, featuring the passage from the Gospel of Mark in
which a woman with a hemorrhage is healed by touching the cloak of Jesus.
The reading was presented by eight readers: one who read the Gospel,
followed by the others speaking thought fragments of an abuse victim,
a parent, a priest, an Aboriginal elder and other people affected by
sexual abuse.
Participants were invited
to process to the front of the church to place a stone at the foot of
a large cross. Some couples placed the stone together, hand-in-hand.
Many found the exercise quite emotional.
“I was particularly
struck by the sense and spirit of contrition and humility in the service,”
said a local priest. “I also appreciated the frank talk about
abuse, especially during the dramatic reading of the Gospel. It was
refreshing to be talking about abuse so openly in church.”
Bishop Donald Bolen began
his homily with the story of a woman who gave birth in a grave, where
she was hiding from the Nazis during the Shoah. A man hiding in the
next grave later said that surely only the Messiah could be born in
the heart of such suffering.
“If there is a Messiah,
if there is a God of love, then that Messiah must be born into the heart
of human suffering,” said Bolen, “or the redemption gained
will not reach us in our deepest darkness.”
The bishop made it clear
that the prayers offered during the liturgy were for all those hurt
by abuse as well as for health and forgiveness of the abusers themselves.
“We gather as a community
to pray for all those touched by the reality of abuse,” he said:
for those who were abused in secrecy, for those who did not deal promptly
with the allegations, for those who perpetrated the abuse on the most
vulnerable members of society, and “for ourselves as we struggle
to see God’s presence in this broken body of the church.”
The Diocese of Saskatoon
responded to the issue of sexual abuse in 1991 when Bishop James Mahoney
formed a committee to develop diocesan procedures for dealing with allegations
of sexual abuse by clergy and parish employees.
In October 2008 the diocese
further developed the policy to include prevention, response and a victim’s
committee. This three-part document, titled Working Together for a Safe
and Respectful Church Environment, opens with a statement of hope that
the church would be a place of safety for the vulnerable.
“In our society and
indeed in the church itself, sad experience has shown the need for vigilance
and awareness to provide safe space and practices in order that all,
especially the most vulnerable, may feel and be at peace in a safe environment,”
the text states.
The 35-page document is aimed
at protecting children as well as vulnerable adults, including the mentally
and physically challenged and those who may be in particular need because
of their emotional, social or material circumstances. The policy applies
to clergy, religious and laity involved in parish or diocesan ministry.
Bolen’s first pastoral letter as bishop was a response to the issue of sexual abuse in the church. It was distributed to all parishes in the diocese the weekend of May 10-11, the fifth Sunday of Easter.
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