Pray for healing in the Church, bishop preaches at Eucharistic Congress closing Mass

Bishop supports national lay investigation ‘to follow all leads wherever the truth may lead’

CHARLOTTE — The 14th Eucharistic Congress was a time for the people of the Diocese of Charlotte to come together “with one united voice” to pray for healing in the Church, even as Catholics have reacted with “shame, anger, disappoinment, disgust and feelings of betrayal” to recent allegations of child sexual abuse and misconduct, Bishop Peter Jugis said in his homily at the event’s closing Mass Sept. 8.

The Mass marked the culmination of the two-day event at the Charlotte Convention Center, which drew thousands of Catholics from across western North Carolina Sept. 7-8.
This year’s gathering was an opportunity to pray for reparation and healing in the Church, Bishop Jugis said.

Several times during the Eucharistic Congress the Charlotte bishop addressed the abuse crisis that has created turmoil for the Church in the U.S. since allegations arose of sexual misconduct by Church leaders, including a retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., and the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of child sexual abuse by hundreds of priests in six dioceses of that state.

“We come with the intention of offering prayers of reparation for the horrible sins of abuse and misconduct and the sins of the abuse of power and authority that have been committed within our beloved Church,” Bishop Jugis said at the start of his homily.

In his homily, Bishop Jugis recounted his immediate reaction to the news of the scandals, when visiting Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in High Point to install its new pastor, Oblates of St. Francis de Sales Father Peter Leonard on Aug. 18 – just four days after the Pennsylvania grand jury report was released.

The “scandalous revelations” regarding sexual abuse, misconduct and abuse of power by leaders of the Church, he said, made him recoil.

“My heart is very heavy and disgusted,” he said. “We have all been entirely justified in our reactions of shame, anger, disappointment, disgust and feelings of betrayal.

“I share your sorrow and I am truly sorry for these crimes that have been perpetrated against the innocent.”

“This abuse imprints lifelong scars on its victims,” he also said. “In addition, the entire Church has been very seriously wounded.”

“We need to pray for healing in the Church,” the bishop said – for abuse victims, for the perpetrators and for the entire Church.

Bishop Jugis also reiterated his support for Cardinal Daniel DiNardo’s recent call for an investigation into the allegations against retired Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, “an opening of new and confidential channels for reporting complaints against bishops,” and “better procedures” to resolve complains made against bishops.

Bishop Jugis first expressed his full support for these proposals in an Aug. 17 written statement.

“To begin to repair and restore trust,” Bishop Jugis repeated in his homily, “I agree completely with the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that there must be a Vatican visitation and investigation, and the appointment of an independent, national, lay commission with the authority to follow all leads wherever the truth may lead.”

The U.S. bishops are expected to take up the cardinal’s proposals during their next meeting in November.

Catholics must also work to pursue “radical holiness in our own lives,” he added.

“In this Eucharistic Congress, the whole family of the Diocese of Charlotte – clergy, consecrated religious and lay faithful from all parishes of the diocese, schools and ministries – have all come together, and in one united voice beseech the Most Holy Trinity to have mercy on the Church and grant the grace of cleansing and purification and renewal.”

He prayed that the Most Holy Trinity would accept the prayers of the faithful and grant “these most urgent intentions.”

— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor