LAMENTING the suffering of children who are abandoned, living on the streets, or forced to serve as soldiers in conflicts, Pope Benedict XVI said during his Midnight Mass homily on Christmas Eve: “Every child asks for our love. This night, then, let us think especially of those children who are denied the love of their parents. Let us think of those street children who do not have the blessing of a family home, of those children who are brutally exploited as soldiers and made instruments of violence, instead of messengers of reconciliation and peace. Let us think of those children who are victims of the industry of pornography and every other appalling form of abuse, and thus are traumatized in the depths of their souls.”
On its face, it was a timely and incontrovertible reminder.
Still, it sparked protests, more particularly from those who are skeptical of the Catholic Church’s sincerity when it comes to investigating pedophilia within its hierarchy. To this day the Pope’s transfer of a beleaguered American cardinal from his archdiocese to Rome, where he continues to hold influential appointments, is viewed by such critics as a case of coddling, and not punishing, a prelate who wouldn’t put his foot down when confronted with cases of sexual abuse.
And yet this pontiff has issued unprecedented apologies to victims of sexual abuse by clergymen, and encouraged the removal of pedophile-priests from pastoral positions. Indeed, he has devoted much of his energy to a twofold strategy: clarifying Catholic doctrine and bringing it back to basics—regardless of whether or not this displeases “cafeteria Catholics”—while demanding greater maturity and scrutiny of those undergoing priestly formation.
Indeed, the controversial nature of the Pope’s Christmas homily to the City and to the World—in which he said saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was as important as saving the rainforests from destruction—are all in keeping with doctrine. Surveying the political, social and economic conditions of the world, his words echoed Christ’s as he stood on the mountaintop and wept for Jerusalem.
Catholic belief teaches that there are “sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance.” These, according to the Catholic catechism, are: willful murder; the sin of the Sodomites; the cry of the people oppressed; the cry of the foreigner, the widow and the orphan; and injustice to the wage earner. A deeper look into the Pope’s Christmas homily and message shows that these sins are the central preoccupations of his lamentations over the current problems of humanity.
The protests that met the Pope’s homily, which he surely expected—but defiance of secular public opinion has been a hallmark of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, with its call for Catholicism to be like the parable of the mustard seed, shunning popularity or political correctness—shouldn’t overshadow its messages’ particular relevance to Filipinos today. Specifically, his appeal for compassion and action to address the plight of young people everywhere, whether those forced to serve as soldiers or sex slaves, or those whose spiritual, emotional and physical health has been, or is being, impaired by poverty. Our country is no stranger to the abuse of young people by the clergy or other people in authority, or their use as child soldiers by rebels, their manhandling by the police, and the callousness and irresponsibility of adults toward children’s lives and wellbeing.
The street urchin embarking on a life of crime; the youth whose resentments and poverty lead them to take up arms in violation of all norms of civilized conduct; the boys and girls who never have enough to eat, who cannot study well because of cramped conditions in school—the catalogue of our society’s failings in regard to children is vast.
We are a nation fortunate in that the ties of family remain strong; but we are a nation that refuses to take collective responsibility for the way young people are made to endure the shortcomings of their elders.
The Pope’s message stung so many because there was truth in what he said.
