Angelus News | May 17, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 18

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ANGELUS May 17, 2019 | Vol.4 • No.18 3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010-2241 (213) 637-7360 • FAX (213) 637-6360 — Published by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles by The Tidings (a corporation), established 1895. Publisher ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ Vice Chancellor for Communications DAVID SCOTT Editor PABLO KAY pkay@angelusnews.com Multimedia Editor TAMARA LONG-GARCÍA ttirado@angelusnews.com Production Coordinator OSVALDO CISTERNAS oecisternas@angelusnews.com Features Editor R.W. DELLINGER bdellinger@angelusnews.com Photo Editor VICTOR ALEMÁN valeman@angelusnews.com Managing Editor RICHARD G. BEEMER rbeemer@angelusnews.com Assistant Editor HANNAH SWENSON hswenson@angelusnews.com Circulation CHRIS KRAUSE ckrause@angelusnews.com Advertising Manager JIM GARCIA JAGarcia@angelusnews.com Sales PATTY BROOKS pabrooks@angelusnews.com MARY CASARES mcasares@angelusnews.com JOE MANZA jmanza@angelusnews.com CHUCK MILAN cmilan@angelusnews.com ANGELUS is published weekly except at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas and semiweekly in July and August by The Tidings (a corporation), established 1895. Periodicals postage paid at Los Angeles, California. One-year subscriptions (44 issues), $30.00; single copies, $1.00 © 2019 ANGELUS (2473-2699). No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Events and products advertised in ANGELUS do not carry the implicit endorsement of The Tidings Corporation or the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: ANGELUS, PO Box 306, Congers, NY 10920-0306. For Subscription and Delivery information, please call (844) 245-6630 (Mon - Fri, 7 am-4 pm PT). facebook.com/ AngelusNews POPE WATCH Steps to protect On Thursday, May 9, Pope Francis issued his most important response to the reawakening sexual abuse crisis affecting the Catholic Church by issuing a “motu proprio” (Latin for “on his own impulse”) titled “Vos estis lux mundi” (“You are the light of the world”), based on a verse from the Gospel of St. Matthew (5:14). The document clarifies norms and procedures for holding bishops and religious superiors accountable in protecting minors as well as in protecting members of religious orders and seminarians from abuse. The document is the fruit of months of high-profile discussions among Church leaders on the abuse crisis, including a meeting of leaders of bishops’ conferences from around the world at the Vatican in February. “The crimes of sexual abuse offend Our Lord, cause physical, psychological and spiritual damage to the victims and harm the community of the faithful,” the pope said in the document. The norms go into effect June 1. In order to stop all forms of abuse from ever happening again, not only is “a continuous and profound conversion of hearts” necessary, there must be “concrete and effective actions that involve everyone in the Church,” he wrote. Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, said the new norms ascribe a new role to heads of dioceses by making them responsible for alerting the proper Vatican authorities of all forms of suspected abuse, including the possession, distribution, or creation of pornography info@ angelusnews.com www.angelusnews.com FOLLOW US Angelus News involving a minor. He told Vatican News May 9 that the norms respond to Francis’ continued insistence for concrete and effective measures to ensure bishops and religious superiors have a very clear understanding of what their obligations are and what they should and should not do when it comes to safeguarding. The new norms outline procedures that call for an eccesiastical province’s metropolitan bishop to handle the investigation of a bishop accused of sexual abuse in his province. If the metropolitan bishop is accused, the region’s most senior bishop is chosen to investigate. The document also requires all priests and religious to report suspected abuse or cover-ups and encourages any layperson to report through a now-mandated reporting “system” or office in each diocese. It also stipulates privacy protections for reporters of abuse and clarifies the definition of “vulnerable” adults, among other things. How the office or “system” works will be up to each diocese, but “the idea is that anyone who has suffered abuse can have recourse to the local church, while being assured they will be well received, protected from retaliation, and that their reports will be treated with the utmost seriousness,” Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, told Vatican News. Reporting courtesy of Catholic News Service Rome correspondent Carol Glatz. @Angelus News www.la-archdiocese.org @Angelus News 2 • ANGELUS • May 17, 2019
NEW WORLD OF FAITH BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ Confession is sacred Saint Mateo Correa Magallanes was a priest and a Knight of Columbus. During the persecution of the Church in Mexico in 1927, he had a choice to make. He was in the jails hearing confessions from prisoners rounded up by the government. Now, a general was pressing a gun to his head, threatening to kill him if he did not disclose what prisoners had told him in confession. Mateo said, “You can do that, but just know that a priest must keep the seal of confession. I am willing to die.” Shortly after that, he was taken to the outskirts of town and killed. Every priest takes his obligations as a confessor seriously. We know it is a beautiful duty and a privilege to guide souls and grant forgiveness in God’s name. Mateo and many priests down through the centuries have chosen to suffer rather than betray the confidentiality of what they hear in confession. Confession is sacred — to every priest and every Catholic. That is why I am greatly disturbed by a bill that is moving through the California legislature. Senate Bill 360 would order priests to disclose information concerning the sexual abuse of minors that they hear in confession. Sometimes the best intentions can lead to bad legislation. That is the case with SB 360. Child sexual abuse is a horrible sin and crime that afflicts every area of our society. In the Catholic Church, we have grappled with this scandal for many years. Across the state, dioceses have put in place policies and programs to keep children safe. We fingerprint and do background checks on Church personnel, we have staff who help victims, and we have strict protocols for dealing with allegations against priests and others who work for the Church. As a result, new cases of child sexual abuse by priests are rare in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and other dioceses in California. Every case is one too many. And the Church remains vigilant in protecting children and we are committed to helping all victim-survivors find healing. But from a public policy standpoint, if the goal is to prevent child sexual abuse, it does not make sense to single out Catholic priests and the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, which is the formal name for confession. Catholics believe that in the confessional we can tell God everything that is on our heart and seek his healing mercy. The priest is only an instrument; he stands in the “person of Christ.” We confess our sins — not to a man but to God. The privacy of that intimate conversation — our ability to speak with total honesty from our lips to God’s ear — is absolutely vital to our relationship with God. This legislation, then, is a mortal threat to the religious freedom of every Catholic. What is more alarming is that this bill is moving forward without any evidence that it will protect children. Priests are already “mandated reporters” in California. That means we are required by law to report cases of sexual abuse that we suspect, except if we hear about it in the confessional. SB 360’s sponsor makes a sweeping claim that “the clergy-penitent privilege has been abused on a large scale, resulting in the unreported and systemic abuse of thousands of children across multiple denominations and faiths.” That is simply not true. Hearings on the bill have not presented a single case — in California or anywhere else — where this kind of crime could have been prevented if a priest had disclosed information he had heard in confession. Why is no one asking the bill’s sponsor to provide evidence for his accusations against the Church? SB 360 claims to solve a crisis that does not exist. The fact is, child sexual abuse is not a sin that people confess to priests in the confessional. Those who counsel such predators tell us that, sadly, many of them are secretive and manipulative and cannot comprehend the grave evil of their actions. It is far more likely that journalists and lawyers would hear admissions about such crimes. Yet this bill does not propose doing away with attorney-client privilege or the protection of journalists’ sources. It only targets Catholic priests. SB 360 should be voted down. And we should continue working together to seek effective ways to fight this scourge of child sexual abuse in our society. Pray for me this week, and I will pray for you. And let us pray for our priests — with gratitude for their courage in opening the doors of God’s mercy to us in confession. And let us ask our Blessed Mother Mary to help us to bring healing to every victim-survivor of abuse and help us to build a society where every child is loved, protected, and safe. To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com. May 17, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3
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Angelus News | May 17, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 18

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