To pave the future

Morgan Rooney
MSMU Class of 2020

(10/2018) After spending my time reading about the abuse that has taken place in the Catholic Church, not just now but for decades and most definitely centuries, I struggle to even begin to describe the emotions that I feel, only imagining what the victims endured and are feeling to this very day and for the rest of their lives. After reading about this and hearing endlessly about it, I felt and still feel an overwhelming amount of disgust, furiousness, heartbrokenness and mostly an overwhelming feeling of disappointment in those who provoked the abuse that took place. For one, it was just a moment of bodily pleasure, yet for another it is an overwhelming event turned into a memory that, unfortunately, will never leave them; a burden that will weigh them down forever because their mind has lost its innocence.

As a child growing up, the Church is supposed to be a place of peace and love. A child should learn love from their peers and their elders; whether that be other children, their teachers, parents or most certainly their religious leaders. As men of God, these religious leaders hold an important role in the Church: To be role models. Many do a great job and have a strong influence on the members of the Church and elsewhere, through charity, guidance, prayers and sacraments. In my eyes, and I’m sure the eyes of many others are seeing the very same: the men who have committed these crimes and grave sins are not men of God, but only cowards who are not living out the message of Christ’s love that the Church teaches. They are only pretending in the eyes of the public, and are selfish behind the scenes, committing disgusting acts to fulfill their own sick desires. A true man or woman of God works not only for the good of themselves, but the good of others by trying to spread Christ’s love through action, word and thought.

Of course, we all know that not one person is perfect on this Earth. We all make mistakes and we all sin every day, including those who are put on in these leadership positions. As perfect as a character may appear to be, he or she will never be flawless, even though it is something we all strive to be. Now, it is our job to learn from these mistakes we have made and try to heal the wounds, no matter how deep, that we have created. As members of the Catholic Church, both young and old, man and woman, it is our job to make our best attempt to heal the deep wounds that were cast onto the most impressionable within the walls of the Church that has had a huge piece of all of our lives.

I certainly would not say that I am in a place to be angry with the Catholic Church as a whole in any way, as it has brought peace, love and comfort into many people’s lives. Many individuals, however, have claimed to be of a holy nature, yet wore a mask the whole time, not owning up to any part they may have played in not bringing these cases to justice. Sometimes it is more important to bring injustice to attention to put us in a position to make the world a better place than to highlight the things that are already flourishing.

This is not something we can simply move on from. "Forgive and forget" is not something that can be so easily said as this is not something that can be forgotten. We, however, can learn from these tragic events just as we learn from our own mistakes and the mistakes of others. That is the moral of many stories which we heard as children. There are so many examples I can think of just off the top of my head: "The Boy Who Cried Wolf", "Little Red Riding Hood", "The Tortoise and the Hare". These stories found their way into most of our childhoods because we learn something from them. We learn from the mistakes made by the characters in each of the stories so that we do not make those same mistakes. Although, most of us reading this are much older than an impressionable child, the stories and the moral messages they witness still apply.

Why do we still speak of old wars when they are filled with so much sorrow? Because we do not want the sorrows of these wars to be repeated in the future. It is important to know how we got to the point we are at now in order to avoid taking any steps backwards. From what we have learned, 50 years from now, these events will be, and should still be in our distant memory with the hope that they will never happen again. What we want is to create a better world for the generations to come where these injustices do not happen. It does sound like a far-fetched idea at this point, yet it is a goal we all must strive for.

It is important to know that by speaking up against these actions, you likely could be preventing it from taking place in the future. Although I understand that many victims may prefer to stay anonymous, it is important to bring these issues to the attention of the public with the intention of preventing further trauma.

Lastly, we need to make sure to listen to those who have had the courage to come forward. The "Me Too" movement, made known by the media in the fall of 2017, showed the affect that support from community members has in bringing justice to the abusers and the victims. It is our task now to be that community of healing for the injured in our midst. The responsibility is in our hands to pave a better future free of sexual abuse and misconduct.

Read other articles by Morgan Rooney