Is the Catholic Church capable of functioning as an agent of healingtoday, asks Father Richard Lyng.ahead of a reconciliation conference in Knock next weekRite and Reason
On May 13th, 1981, the image of a white-clad papal figure folding under gunfire like a rag-doll shocked the world. But a more powerful image still was the same visibly weakened Pope embracing Ali Acga in his prison cell. It was a moving, powerful gesture, truly sacramental. He had already forgiven his tormentor from his hospital bed. He visited him in his prison cell to offer reconciliation. There is a difference. Forgiveness can be a solitary gesture. Reconciliation must be a two-way process.
John Lonergan is familiar with prison life. He remarked recently: "Tolerance, compassion and forgiveness have almost become alien in our day. There's absolutely no evidence of reconciliation. The most basic human need is to be loved. Many find it difficult to find evidence that they're loved."
Society's most damaged people land on Mr Lonergan's doorstep. He sees his ultimate task as "reintegrating the person back into society". But the original alienating factors must first be addressed. What alienated this person so radically? Some say what we need is more prisons. But Mr Lonergan is right. The problem is not in Mountjoy Prison. The problem is to be found in society itself.
Hurt of course is not confined to prisoners. Just as hurt is a universal human experience, healing is a universal human need. People are damaged socially, spiritually, emotionally. Many are excluded from society. Of course they will fight back. All of our major cities contain significant pockets of neglect. Some retaliate through anti-social behaviour. Others seek oblivion through drugs or alcohol.
Most tragically of all, those who were sexually abused as children had their innocence ripped from them, their lives destroyed. Nothing on this earth can compensate them for this destruction. As Pozzo remarks in Beckett's Waiting for Godot: "The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops." Hurt, too, is a constant quantity. It gnaws its way into every dimension of human experience, into the experience of every human being.
How do we deal with hurt? With alienation? We would expect some guidance from the Christian churches. They have been wrestling with these very issues for 2,000 years. But the churches have not distinguished themselves in the field of reconciliation. We once naively assumed that church unity was but a matter of time. Such optimism was misplaced. Ecumenism has lost its way. The annual prayer gathering for Christian unity is just holy charade.
Ecumenism seems to fare better where the Roman Catholic Church is in the minority. This is true of England and northern Europe. Those in a strong position can afford to be generous. Have we been? What generous gesture of reconciliation can the majority church offer the minority in an Irish context?
Within the Roman Catholic itself, hurt and alienation are major problems. The power wielded in the past now haunts us. As a historian, I am aware that it is both wrong and dangerous to judge the past by the standards and knowledge of today. But child sexual abuse was wrong, and known to be wrong, in every age.
The Irish Penitentials of the 8th and 9th centuries censured this sin severely. Obviously child sexual abuse is not new. But again, as Mr Lonergan remarks, abusers do not fall from the skies as ready-made monsters. They are human beings, products of Irish society. Rather than scapegoating these men, perhaps we should be asking the question: "What elements in our society warped their productive instincts and directed them towards such destructive ends?"
Is the Catholic Church capable of functioning as an agent of healing today? The Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation has collapsed. People have walked away from the confession box. The weakness of this form is conveyed through an old story. On her way home from a "good confession", a woman encounters an old adversary. Feeling constrained by the pristine condition of her soul, she muses to herself: "Thank God, I won't always be in the state of grace!"
The confession box was a mechanism for shedding guilt rather than effecting reconciliation. Vatican II's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy stressed the social nature of sin, and the social nature of the ritual of reconciliation. Vatican II provided for a communal ritual with general absolution. Today this is prohibited by Rome. The people are being denied the full richness of the ritual. They are saying "no, thank you" to the impoverished form on offer!
The Catholic Church must think again. Authentic ritual can be a powerful instrument of healing. How can the church do for Ireland today what the Pope's encounter with Ali Acga did for the world 20 years ago? When conducted effectively, a sacramental gesture can "bring good news to the poor and bind up hearts that are broken". Incidentally, why not offer this treasure to our Reformed brothers and sisters?
Richard A. Lyng OSA is senior tutor at the History Department, NUIG, and parish priest of St Augustine's Parish, Galway
• The Western Theological Institute has organised a three-day conference on "The Church's Urgent Challenge: Healing and Reconciliation", which takes place in Knock from May 27th to 29th. Speakers include the North's Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, Bishop Willie Walsh, Presbyterian minister Rev Ruth Patterson, Sister Máirín McDonagh; and Ladislas Örsy, visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University, Washington. Booking information from 091-581711, or mariemurphy@theologywest.ie