When Mercy Seasons Justice: Pope Francis and a Story of Migration by David Edward Bonior

Author:David Edward Bonior
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: City Point Press
Published: 2020-12-15T17:16:50+00:00

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission shall be established with the task to investigate the sexual abuse scandals and the accountability structures that were in place to address the abuses.

Investigative hearings shall be conducted to arrive at the truth.

3) The commission shall be composed of lay and religious persons, but the majority of the commission shall come from the laity.

4) The commission shall report back to the pope, on a date certain, such recommendations as it deems necessary and that are fair and appropriate for the grave injustices that have occurred.

5) The commission recognizes the positive strides that were made in the Dallas Charter (For the Protection of Children and Young People) since 2002. However, the gaping hole in that Charter regarding accountability by bishops must be closed.

6) The laity on the commission shall come from the following designations:

Those who have been sexually abused or their representatives.

Representatives from academia with expert knowledge in psychology and theology.

Representatives from the legal communities, both canon and civil law.

Representatives from the divorced Catholic community.

Representatives from the gay community.

Representatives from a wide field of geographic areas and cultural concerns.

7) Regarding the appointment of religious members to the commission, we recommend to Pope Francis an article in the September 8, 2018, National Catholic Reporter by Melissa Musick Nussbaum entitled, “Bishops, be like parents—try to be better than you actually are.”

In the article, Nussbaum writes, speaking of Ezekiel, “The word of the Lord came to me. . . . What came to Ezekiel was a cry against the shepherds, ‘who have been posturing themselves.’ The imagery is Psalm 23 violently upended: shepherds feasting in green pastures, shepherds resting beside the still waters. And the sheep they were supposed to lead there? They are abandoned.”

Further on, Nussbaum writes, “I could almost hear Ezekiel’s voice rise:

‘You did not strengthen the weak nor heal the sick

nor bind up the injured.

You did not bring back the strayed nor seek the lost.

but you lorded it over them harshly and brutally.

So they were scattered for lack of a shepherd,

and became food for all the wild beasts.’

And then God warns through the prophet,

‘Because my shepherd did not look after my sheep . . .

I swear I am coming against these shepherds.’

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