I want to share a tension that I see in the Church—the whole body of Christ, from laypeople to priests to bishops to the pope—in the way we talk about the poor, the marginalized, and the vulnerable—including survivors—in the Church.
Last week, Pope Leo visited France, and during his visit, he visited with several survivors of sexual abuse in the church. And the way that this was covered, or the way that I saw this covered, in Catholic media was: the Pope is doing this thing, he's making this gesture that isn't just a gesture, he's meeting and listening to survivors of abuse in the Church. But it's framed as he's doing something for them in this meeting.
Now, certainly there's a layer of truth in that, but I think we need to see and frame these types of events differently and have different goals in mind with them even.
In Pope Leo's apostolic exhortation, Dilexi Te, that came out last fall, he talks about the poor. And in the category of poor he includes the vulnerable and the marginalized, and certainly survivors of abuse in the Church would be included in that. And he talks about how the poor are not simply objects of charity or objects of pity, but subjects in and of themselves, subjects in their own right, with their own culture. He says that we must be taught by the poor, evangelized by the poor, that from their experiences of being vulnerable and being marginalized and material poverty, that the poor have something to teach the Church.
He really gives this impression that God has something to give to the Church. And he says throughout that it's only through a preferential option for the poor that the Church will experience renewal. Like, survivors in the Church are the way by which the Church will find renewal. Not in an objectification way, but in a way of recognizing that whether a survivor of abuse in the Church is practicing or not, or identifies as Catholic or not, they are a brother or sister. God is doing good in their life, and God has something that the Church needs. The Church needs to learn from survivors and be evangelized by them.
Often in discussion about abuse in the Church, the good leaders, the good priests will recognize that they have a role in healing, and they do, and there's truth in that. But what's often missed is the next step, which is recognizing that the leaders in the Church, and everyone in the Church, the whole body of Christ, needs to learn from, needs to be healed by, survivors.
I think of the parable of the lost sheep. I've heard it framed that priests and leaders in the Church need to be like Christ towards survivors who goes out in search of the lost sheep. I don't think that framing is helpful or true. And I think it furthers a paternalistic, clericalist, white knight type of mindset.
I think rather we need to recognize that we're the lost sheep. We've participated in structures of sin that have caused so much harm to people in the Church. And Christ needs to find me.
Christ needs to find me through the vulnerable and the marginalized.
Christ needs to find me through precisely the people that I've participated in marginalizing in the Church.
I don't come in as a white knight. I come in as a lost sheep who needs to be found.
Thanks for this post, Paul.