"I stood there in the Church and didn't know what to do. I was listening to this lament in a very public place. I wanted to leave, but then I thought I would be seen to be a perpetrator or outed as a victim. So, I sat down and spent the rest of the Mass angry…," said one man, who wrote to me.

The man says he felt used, adding, "I am so sick of apologies; they are just another form of victimisation."

This is the first of a series of stories I received following my initial piece in CathNews.

A nurse also wrote, recalling that at the end of the Mass, she and the other reader sat with the reader asked to lead the lament—without any preparation—and processed what it all meant.

"A truly professional organisation would have offered support to anyone in the congregation impacted by abuse because you never know who is sitting there and what they are experiencing, but there was nothing."

Another person wrote: "The Sunday Mass is no longer a safe place when I am made guilty of the sins of paedophiles, and church leaders who have not led."

A younger person recounted the experience of being "personally blamed for the crimes that others did in my country" during her grandparent's generation.

"To me, the lament does the same, and I know that others also were upset; I just wonder how those who were abused felt?"

Communications blunder

"They did old-form communications, focusing mainly on content rather than modern messaging that also considers the impact," wrote a communications professional.

Nowadays, there is also more than one channel to deliver a suitable message.

Given that most Catholics no longer regularly attend Sunday Mass, using the Mass as a key communications channel is designed for the village; it is pre-digital and shows that if the bishops receive communication advice, the advisors must up their game.

The response I received to my original piece from clergy has been supportive.

Several wrote expressing their distaste for what they had to do and how they had to do it. Some expressed surprise that no network of support was offered.

Having received the material before Sunday Mass, one priest offered pastoral feedback to his bishop on the content and strategy, but the priest says his advice was not taken.

Other priests also wrote saying they modified the lament or ignored it all together.

Sunday Mass

Sunday Mass is a space where the divine and the human meet, a place beyond the pragmatic.

Understanding the nature of liturgical rites and how they function theologically is the work of liturgical theologians, not a dive into the esoteric.

Using a biblical lament during a Sunday Mass is never appropriate.

Biblical laments are placed within penitential services as part of the healing process.

Accordingly, penitential laments change in their structure, language and purpose according to who is lamenting and what is being lamented:

• I lament that I have done this,
• I lament that others have done this to me,
• We lament that we as a people and nation have done this.

Laments should not be used as a cheap ‘apologetic hocus-pocus'.

It also appears that the bishops' liturgical advisors and theologians must up their game.

Representative or actual guilt and accountability

In making these comments, distinguishing between representative guilt, actual guilt and accountability must be more carefully considered.

How do the current group of bishops, congregational leaders and school leaders/Boards carry the representative guilt and accountability for their predecessors' lapses in moral judgment when they do not carry the actual guilt or personal accountability?

Is it reasonable to project representative guilt or accountability onto the general population with little knowledge of what went on, who have had no part in decision-making and those without agency?

The reality of abuse will be the defining historical term of this period of the Church.

Institutional abuse must be addressed on many levels because it is primarily a human reality; and it is through addressing human needs, decision-making and the human experience of being abused that the institution can find a new way of operating.

An approach to moving forward

In order for everyone to move forward with their lives I'd like to suggest three conversations may be appropriate:

• ask survivors what an authentic act of penance or repentance would look like;
• ask survivors and parishioners what a genuine act of restitution for survivors might look like;
• ask survivors, parishioners, and perpetrators what a healing form of public reconciliation might look like.

In these conversations, a synodal approach to the reality of abuse might uncover and communicate more than an apology ever can.

Importantly, these conversations must not be forced on survivors, Sunday Mass-goers, or perpetrators; they should not be seen as conversations that solve the problem so everyone can move on.

Healing

The function of the Royal Commission was to listen, judge, and act by making recommendations. The Royal Commission helps by exposing issues but cannot heal because it is a legal instrument, not a theological one.

Similarly, political reform will only change the functions around abuse prevention, not abuse's ontology.

In contrast, the Christian Church possesses the tools to address abuse beyond legality and functional prevention, and the Church must offer more than a change in the management of abuse prevention.

The Church must forge new pathways to healing and reconciliation by applying the theological truths of faith, hope, and love through our sacramental system and the mercy of the Gospel.

The way forward for Christians is ultimately theological and liturgical because that is how we frame and understand salvation, life, death, meaning and purpose.

Similarly, a radical (from the roots) reform of the exercise of authority in the church needs to be addressed theologically if the experience and complexity of institutional abuse are to be transformative of institutional leadership.

• Dr Joe Grayland is an assistant lecturer in the Department of Liturgy at the University of Wuerzburg (Germany). He has also been a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Palmerston North (New Zealand) for more than 30 years.

In a letter that needed to be short, it is hard to know what language the bishops could have used to make their apology more comprehensive than it is.

Certainly, the apology needed to acknowledge, above all, Church leaders' own failures for inadequate handling of offenders and inadequate support for victims/survivors.

But as leaders, it also fell to them to apologise, as far as possible, for all offending within the Church.

In their own way, I think the bishops were trying to do all this, while acknowledging that "words alone can never replace what was stolen and can never fully restore that which was destroyed."

Responsibility and abuse

But when Joe claims that the bishops fail to take "full responsibility" he seems to mean "sole responsibility," because he says that, "through the apology and the lament", Sunday congregations were being "co-opted into sharing responsibility for their leaders' actions" and called to "become complicit in the leaders' sins".

Surely, the apology needed to encompass the failures of bishops, priests, religious and laity, because anything less would not have respected what victims/survivors have been telling us.

Joe's claim that using the occasion of a Sunday Mass was itself "a subtle form of abuse", and that it had "no rightful place in the Sunday liturgy" is surely unrealistic.

Real life

This was not the time for esoteric distinctions between laments, symbols of shame, public and private repentance, etc. Liturgy has to be incarnate in real life!

Real life includes: the right of victims/survivors and the Catholic people to hear the apology as directly as possible and not just via public media.

In real life, the time when most Catholics gather is at Sunday Masses. In the course of every year, special causes are occasionally featured without prejudice to the Sunday's primary meaning.

In real life, a letter that needs to be short is never going to say everything that everybody wants it to say.

And in real life, most sexual offending occurs in homes or among relatives, and most vocations to priesthood and religious life come from homes. The apology and the lament were an occasion for all of us.

I think our congregations would have been pleased to hear the bishops' apology, and appreciated the opportunity to participate in a form of communal lament, and would have recognised the need for it to be on a Sunday.

• Copy supplied
• Bishop Peter Cullinane (pictured) is Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Palmerston North.

The modernisation seeks to fill a twenty-six-year gap and reflect some of the modern challenges.

Dr John Kleinsman, director of the NZ Catholic bishops' Nathaniel Centre for Bioethics, is delighted with the bishops' update.

Kleinsman describes the new document as a "succinct overview of eight key moral areas, including a new section on information technology and artificial intelligence."

Among the modern challenges the bishops consider

• Information technology and artificial intelligence
• Justice and correction systems
• War and peace
• Poverty
• Discrimination and abuse
• End-of-life issues
• Beginning of life issues
• Integrity of Creation

Kleinsman says that people generally know what the Chucrh teaches but are unsure of why.

Te Kahu o te Ora - A Consistent Ethic of Life summarises key points which can give people greater insights into Catholic thinking, comments Kleinsman.

"It is a great source for open and informed discussions", says Kleinsman who, as well as being a theologian, is a married man, father and grandfather.

The original Te Kahu o te Ora was inspired by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's A Consistent Ethic of Life.

Bernardin's work grew from his observation that we must act consistently because all human life is sacred.

It was Bernadin's view that it was inconsistent to protect life in some situations but not in others.

In the years following Roe v. Wade, Bernardin argued that human life is always valuable and must be respected consistently from conception to natural death.

Being pro-life is not only about abortion or euthanasia.

Being pro-life must encompass war, poverty, access to health care, education and anything that threatens human life or human wellbeing, he argued.

Stephen Lowe, the Bishop of Auckland, the Apostolic Administrator of Hamilton and President of the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference, describes the update as "Opportune".

Lowe says human life and emerging challenges are interconnected.

"The essence of Te Kahu o te Ora is the interconnectedness of all life, from the womb to the Earth," he said.

Lowe says Pope Benedict put it well some years ago:

"There are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God's darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast."

"While traditional human life issues continue to need our attention, we are now facing many new problems, all interlinked.

"The key message of Te Kahu o te Ora is that everything is connected, whether it is life in the womb or the life of the Earth," Lowe repeated.

Sources

• Supplied
• Catholic Sun

"To those who have been injured, we hold you in our prayers and pray for your recovery.

"We are deeply saddened, and our hearts go out to you, your whanau, and the wider affected communities", they say in a statement released on Saturday.

"The Catholic community of Aotearoa New Zealand stands with people of all faiths and alongside people who profess no faith, as a people united against violence in every form", say the bishops.

Source: NZCBC

They say the new normal is means the Church's liturgy remains restricted to protect the vulnerable and elderly.

The statement, creatively designed for Pentecost, parallels society's lockdown with the image of the apostles and Mary emerging from their pre-Pentecost "closed room."

The bishops say they share the joy of Catholics all over New Zealand at being able to celebrate Eucharist together, however, warn that at least for a while, the new normal means not everyone will be able to be accommodated at Sunday Mass and that each parish will have to determine how to celebrate Mass and ensure the health guidelines are kept.

They also say that due to the regulations some churches are likely to not reopen immediately.

"We share your joy at being able to celebrate Eucharist together. However, we still have to live under the restrictions that are there for the good of our vulnerable and elderly. Each parish is going to have to determine how it will offer Masses while ensuring health guidelines are kept. This may mean some churches will not open immediately. It may mean that there are more people wanting to attend Mass than can be accommodated" a part of the bishops' statement reads.

In the absence of Mass for over two months, the bishops acknowledge the creativity of New Zealanders.

"We have been delighted by the creative initiatives that have arisen and the way the risen Lord has used these to bestow his graces", they wrote.

However, further acknowledging the new normal will be different, the bishops addressed congregations throughout the country, asking anyone who is vulnerable to the virus, those who are afraid and anyone who is not well to stay at home.

The bishops' pastoral statement, acknowledges those who risked themselves while the rest of the country was locked-down.

"As we emerge from our "closed room" and return to our churches and community engagement we take this opportunity to thank those who protected and supported our sick, vulnerable and, indeed, all of us throughout the lockdown. We thank all those in our faith communities who have worked tirelessly to connect with parishioners offering spiritual support."

The bishops say the dispensation from attendance at Sunday Mass continues.

Sources

• Catholic Media

The letter says the bishops are "mindful of the challenges many people in our community are facing" and "understand the anxiety for parents and caregivers created by a loss of employment or other challenges of caring for children at home."

It says work is being done to ensure the community is supported during this period, and that students are not further challenged by a need to look for a new school as a result of financial hardship.

Here is the letter:

The New Zealand Catholic Bishops have been mindful of the challenges many people in our community are facing during the Covid-19 crisis.

We understand the anxiety for parents and caregivers created by a loss of employment or other challenges of caring for children at home during this lockdown.

Our schools offer strong pastoral care, which is the foundation of our Catholic faith and is particularly important in times of upheaval, such as when many educators and students are having to adjust to distance learning.

We want to ensure all those currently enrolled in Catholic schools are able to remain at their school of choice.

The New Zealand Catholic Education Office and our Diocesan leadership teams have given Catholic school Proprietors an appraisal of the challenges parents are likely to face as a result of the impacts of Covid-19.

They are looking at ways we can support the cost of attendance dues for parents who have a loss of income or other hardship.

Work is being done to ensure that our community is supported during this period and that students are not further challenged by a need to look for a new school as a result of financial hardship.

We remember Catholic school families, staff and communities in our prayers, and commend you all for your creative and faith-filled response during this time.

We are inspired by how schools have worked to ensure the continued learning and spiritual formation of students. We look forward to continuing to support our community to remain part of the Catholic Education family

Source

• Supplied
• Image: hbr.org

"New words, deeper meaning, same Mass."

Initially prepared to go with the flow, after a little while I found the cognitive dissonance became too apparent.

What we got were old words with foreign meanings and a Mass that somehow changed my expression of faith.

‘Thumbs up' then to Bishop Drennan, secretary of the New Zealand Bishop's Conference, for his piece in Wel-com, and collectively to the Conference, for their encouragement of Rome to overcome the clunky, awkward new translation.

Of particular mention, ‘two thumbs up' to Bishop Campbell who, when global liturgical ‘group think' was at its peak, swam publicly against the tide, risked a 'rap over the knuckles' from the then pope and criticised the new translation.

Disappointed, Bishop Campbell not only questioned the outcome of the new translation but also its delivery process and, from memory, he warned the ‘new translation' would not be the endpoint.

Importance of language

Sociolinguistics is the study of language and culture; it views language as intrinsic to communication.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity states the structure of a culture's language determines the behaviour, habits and thinking of that culture.

Thus, language forms a culture through the realities embedded in it.

"Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood. We are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for our society.

"We see, hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation." (Benjamin Whorf: Language, Thought, and Reality, p 134.)

Some describe the new translation as beautiful, but it is not the kind of developed world beauty people speak to me about; it doesn't talk about the reality of the cultural setting of antipodean life.

It seems to me the language of the new translation, of exclusivity, archaic vocabulary; "dewfall," "consubstantial," "oblation," and the over-inflated language of prayer; "graciously hear," "graciously grant", "holy and unblemished" and, "and with your spirit," belong to a time long past.

These and other similar phrases may have deep meaning, they may be accurate translations of the Latin, but so what?

Language is a living tradition, it's meant to be readily understood and used, and if the language of the liturgy needs sermons and articles in periodicals to interpret various phrases, haven't we lost the point?

Global and local

I find it sad that a global initiative, which included Bishops Denis Browne and Peter Cullinane, started out to positively address such issues as sexism in liturgical texts but, through no fault of theirs, it got diverted into a mash-up of old and new.

For many, the new translation never really hit the mark and probably never really helped shape us as Catholics in the 21st Century.

So I, for one, welcome Bishop Drennan saying that a better translation of the Mass is possible.

Seemingly under a little pressure to move, I also hear his plea for patience, but I welcome people putting pressure on the bishops for change because it shows interest and involvement in their faith.

A potentially huge task

As the song goes, "Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start".

I'd note that the global initiative before the new translation, started at the beginning and had input from specialists in pastoral liturgy, languages etc.

It took decades to formulate.

So I wonder if there is a need to go back to the beginning; to as it were, 'recreate the wheel' when the translation that met with almost universal approval, still exists?

• The Sacramentary: Volume One Part 1
  
• The Sacramentary: Volume One Part 2
  
• The Sacramentary: Volume Two Part 1
  
• The Sacramentary: Volume Two Part 2

Thankfully now, with a change in Canon Law, Pope Francis has shifted primary responsibility for liturgical texts to each diocesan bishop. However, Bishop Drennan's comments suggest the New Zealand Bishops, at least, will work as a conference on the new text.

Hopefully, this will make things more simple, but, it may not!

For example, many years prior to the 'new translation', the Christchurch diocese used a different version of the "Our Father", so it was possible then and now more possible for a diocesan bishop to allow e.g. different versions of prayers, and different congregational responses.

Yes, that means there may be different prayers and different responses in dioceses within a country, around the world, and in language groupings.

There are times when I'm sure being a bishop must be a thankless task. However, on this one I think we can be proud of our bishops, for like no others they've knocked on Rome's door expressing our frustrations with the current translation.

To use Pope Francis' expression, they are shepherds living with 'the smell of the sheep'.

• After postgraduate communications study at Victoria University Wellington, Fr John Murphy SM works in new media.

Fifty clergy and laity from the Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist and Quaker denominations have called on the bishops to reconsider their position.

"We think it's time the Church recognises and encourages those in same-gender relationships who wish to pledge their love and fidelity to each other in the rite of marriage," the group wrote back to the bishops.

Source:

• TVNZ
• Catholic Diocese of Christchurch
• Image: Technorati