TODAY'S MOST ELUSIVE VIRTUE: SINCERITY

The most important quality one should aspire to achieve in life is sincerity.  Once you can fake that, you can fake anything!

Of course, the cynicism of that remark is beyond redemption.

Nevertheless, that phrase came to mind as I read the banner headlines coming out of the Synod.

One in particular struck me:  Youth Synod Bishop Apologizes to Young People on Behalf of Catholic Leaders.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney apologized to young people on behalf of Church leaders in a speech at the Synod of Bishops Friday.

“For the failure of too many Bishops and others to respond appropriately when abuse was identified, and to do all in their power to keep you safe; and for the damage thus done to the Church’s credibility and to your trust: I apologize,” Archbishop Fisher said, while speaking in the Vatican’s Synod Hall in the presence of Pope Francis and more than 200 bishops.

Youth delegates auditing the 2018 Synod of Bishops were also present in a historic first.

The Archbishop’s apology extended beyond the Church’s mishandling of sex abuse to address catechetical and pastoral failures, apologizing on behalf of Priests for “poor preaching, catechesis or spiritual direction that fails to convert.”


Fischer offered an apology to young Catholics “for when we’ve sold you short not encouraging you to live heroically your Baptismal call to holiness and the paschal path to life through self-renunciation.”

“For the times when you were searching for your sexual, ethnic or spiritual identity, and needed a moral compass, but found Church people unsympathetic or ambiguous: I apologize,” he said during the 15th Ordinary General Session of the Synod of Bishops, which is treating young people, the faith, and vocational discernment.

The Archbishop said that greater transparency is needed in the Church, particularly with the handling of sex abuse cases.

“We have to be absolutely honest about this. We have to own up to the times that we have failed,” he said, “That means we have to investigate it properly, get outsiders with some objectivity to help us to investigate it, get to the truth of the matter and own up to that.”

Well, Archbishop, part of confessing the sin is the acceptance of the penance, making reparation for the evil done and the damage the sin inflicted.

We keep hearing apologies from the hierarchy, but no one is willing to make personal reparation for the evil their unethical and immoral behaviors have inflicted upon victims, their families and the Body of Christ, that is, the communion of the Catholic faithful worldwide.

Is it not appropriate and proportionate to expect, if not demand, that those who violated the trust bestowed upon them in the pastoral ministry remove themselves or be removed (if they are unwilling) from office?

Anyone who just thinks it sufficient to say “I’m (we’re) sorry” but is unwilling to pay the price for their misdeeds is faking sincerity.

So, please, if you’re going to stand before the Synodal Fathers and, in that context, before the Universal Church and apologize, then be honest and in that same moment remove yourself from the Episcopal Office which you have besmirched.

Otherwise, be sincere, be seated and be quiet.

And just one last point, Archbishop, please don’t take it upon yourself to speak for all Priests.  I take exception to that, especially when you denigrate us for “poor preaching, catechesis or spiritual direction that fails to convert.”

Is that true of all Priests?  

Patently absurd as it would be if I suggested the same of Bishops whose preaching is often reduced to reading prepared speeches (hardly homilies) prepared for them by others.