Marking the Jubilee Year, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors made a Pilgrimage of Reparation and Hope on the eve of Holy Week carrying with them, as they crossed the Holy Door, the prayers and testimonies of everyone who has reached out to the Commission over the past decade. The Following reflection is offered by Commission Secretary Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera:

On Wednesday, March 27, those of us who are part of this Commission made the pilgrimage to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. We each carried a small clay house handcrafted by the Augustinian Contemplative Sisters of the Shrine of the Four Crowned Saints in Rome. This symbol manifests our commitment to make our Church a safe place for our children, adolescents and vulnerable people. It also reminds us that hope never disappoints, especially when it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:35).   

Hope descends from heaven as a theological virtue to accompany us on our pilgrimage. On the other hand, it ascends as a human desire, as a sentiment that encapsulates all our aspirations and as a psychological force that manifests itself in concrete actions. Hope comes to us in this twofold fashion: to be persevering in active compassion and ardent in faith, just as grace precedes and accompanies us as a pilgrim people. (1 Ts 1:3) Hope is not only for poets, nor is it for the deluded. It is for all of us, men and women who walk the dusty and tiring paths of our every day life, amazed by God’s surprises and frightened by the pitfalls and uncertainties that we encounter along the way. And yet, we continue to march on because we aspire to a new world where love and reconciliation are possible.   

This pilgrimage helped the Commission to rediscover the value of simple things and to refocus us on what is essential, on what is really worthwhile in life. Above all, it made us aware that reparation to victims for any form of abuse suffered within the Church is also a pilgrimage, and that embarking on this journey is as important as the final destination, because repairing damage is a process over time, a process in which the pain does not disappear, but can be transformed with the strength of the Holy Spirit.   

Pope Francis, in his address on May 5, 2023 to the assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, spoke of a “spirituality of repair” “for what is broken must not remain broken. Mending the torn fabric of past experience is a redemptive act, the act of the Suffering Servant… This is the way of healing and redemption: the way of the cross of Christ.” As members of the Commission, we have witnessed over the past ten years that victims live through a Via Crucis in their lives when the situations they suffered cannot be brought to light, when they cannot embark on a path of healing or when a process of reparation is left incomplete.   

Professor David Smolin reminds us that Christ’s atoning death is the foundation of reparation, as well as the Gospel model of the innocent making reparation for the guilty and the inseparable nature of love for God and our neighbor. We must repair our relationship with God, with the Church, with others, with ourselves because the harm inflicted by clerical abuse affects not only victims but also families and ecclesial communities. It is a proactive journey in which we must all be involved. The victims and survivors are not responsible for making reparations on behalf of the Church; rather, this obligation falls on Church leaders. The Church community joins in this reparative action because those who have been wounded are sons and daughters with tangible faces and real stories who are part of God’s holy and faithful people.   

Reparation means creating spaces where healing occurs. Moreover, because the nature of abuse is intimate and invasive, acts of reparation must be concrete and personalized. These acts should include an active and empathetic listening to victims and survivors of abuse, the inclusion of their advice and learned experience in the development and implementation of prevention protocols and justice system reforms and psychological, medical and spiritual accompaniment.

Public and private apologies are a sincere recognition of the harm caused that cannot be aimed at protecting the image of the institution. Financial reparations should be carefully considered, because although they fulfill a symbolic and/or therapeutic function, they should not be understood as the only possible reparative action.   

A spirit of reparation leads to the hope that wounds can be healed, they can be resiliently overcome, however deep they may be. Complete repair may sometimes seem impossible, particularly where the situation appears hopeless. However, the intention to make reparation and to do so in a concrete way is essential to the process of reconciliation and healing. Christian life is a journey that needs powerful moments to nourish and strengthen hope, which is an irreplaceable companion that allows us to glimpse the goal: An encounter with the Lord Jesus.   

In this Lenten period, I have often heard groups of pilgrims singing a hymn while crossing the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. Its lyrics reflect the sense of being pilgrims of hope and its refrain summarizes what I hope my words have conveyed to you: “We are pilgrims, journeying towards a new world, faith enlightens us: our destiny is not here. The goal is in the eternal; our homeland is Heaven. Hope guides us and love propels us on the way.” 

+ Luis Manuel Alí Herrera

Secretary