ADSUM: March - April 2004

Wounded healers

It seems like another lifetime ago. Actually, it was another lifetime ago!!

I was in my mid 20's, fresh out of the seminary, facing another one of those events for which we'd not been adequately prepped in our training. Then, to be fair, situations take on a whole different level of being when transformed from 'case studies' to incarnated events in the lives of real people.

Sitting in "the box" as we all did on Saturday afternoons, I was hearing confessions. A woman came in who had been referred by a mutual friend hoping that I would evidence compassion. She was seeking to relieve the continuous pain she lived having had an abortion; needing to find some solace and mercy in the presence of God.

The grace of the moment, as we used to say, helped me to share the beneficent forgiveness of God. I remember praying with her that she might be able to turn her wound-filled experience into an opportunity for the compassionate healing of someone who crossed her path in the future. Henri Nouwen in a book just on the market at that time had just given impetus to the term "Wounded Healers."

Recently I was asked to participate in an evening discussion meeting of a local PFLAG (Parents Family and Friends of Gays and Lesbians) group. Based on an article I had written in support of gay marriage, I was asked to present an alternative view as a Catholic and priest to what has been projected as orthodox Church teachings in the press. Many shared the intense pain they experience inflicted by their church or synagogue as family and friends of outed gays and lesbians. One mother spoke of the difficulty her son and his partner had getting their adopted child baptized publicly in church, a child they had found abandoned in the New York subway system.

I've had no personal direct experiences, within my immediate family, of dealing with their pain as parents and families of lesbians and gays who've had their children or family members vilified. What I could share, however, was insights into parallel experiences married Catholic priests and our wives or partners have received for our "coming out of the closet." Because of my personal experiences I was able to connect with their suffering.

My intent here today in this column is not to involve us in a discussion of the specific issues pro or con regarding abortion, or gay rights, or even the need of our Church to have an inclusive priesthood. Confronted by these fellow travelers I was reminded of a piece of sage advice I had learned long ago from Dick Liddy a seminary professor, and now bishop, John M Smith: Christianity is simply one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

Jesus found vibrantly lived faith among Samaritans, Romans, tax collectors, the unclean, the marginalized. He spoke with intensity about his father's care for the just and the unjust. He warned his followers clearly against trying to separate the wheat from the weeds, the saints from the sinners.

Back in January I had the opportunity to have breakfast with a young priest (30 yrs old) from Bosnia who has been providing fill-in support for the past couple of years in our parish during summers and Christmas breaks from his doctoral studies in Rome. Thoroughly committed to the spirit and essence of the Second Vatican Council, he talked about his research into youth ministry programs and activities in his country since the end of Communism. The challenge faced in his home country today, he said, is that there are many priests who still find comfort in the lifestyle they were allowed under Communism... where they just lived in their rectories and waited for people to come to them. What is needed, he said, is a new focus on priest as convener of community, being out with the people ... experiencing and living with them, and preaching the gospel from inside life. When we talked about the Church needing change, from his multi-continent experiences, he noted that things were ripe for real systemic change and that it would come much quicker now than ever before ... things change so much more quickly in this era of globalization. It gave me hope to realize that this young priest would be teaching in his home seminary in September.

CORPUS and our 'sister' reform groups focus on many important aspects around which our Church needs revitalization and renewal. From our own experiences at the hands of our Church leadership, if we are about anything, though, we must be first, last and always about being people of compassion. Underpinning all our actions however critical and vital must be our activities to alleviate pain and suffering of those at the margins of our Church, of our society.

Needing to be revitalized by the faith experiences of others, I was reminded of this quote from the German theologian, Reinhold Neibur:

"Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone. Therefore we are saved by love."

As this season of reform, this liturgical season of Lent, yields through the life and death experiences of Holy Week, to the renewal of Easter may we be people of hope, faith and love.

Peace and blessings,

Russ Ditzel, CORPUS' PRESIDENT
Russ can be reached at crditzel@corpus.org