Church in need of a redemptive Eucharist

The Vatican Curia is fiddling while the universal church is going up in flames.

The latest Instruction from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and called "Redemption Sacramentum" (Sacrament of Redemption) contains 186 points, and 295 footnotes, reminding us who is worthy to preside at Eucharist, where and what he will wear, and who is worthy to receive communion.

It tells us, moreover, that it is the duty of all Catholics to report abuses of these norms so that appropriate canonical penalties can be imposed.

One has to wonder what possible relevance such a document can have when the church in many countries is at risk of losing the Eucharist altogether for lack of priests. Indeed, the redemptive power of the Eucharist is frequently being lost because of the scandalous behaviour of too many of the priests we do have.

I speak as a lifelong lover of the church and of the Eucharist. I believe in the redemptive power of the Eucharist, and am committed to working for the admission of women to a renewed priesthood in the Roman Catholic church precisely because we are at risk of losing the Eucharist--the "fount and summit" of Christian life.

There is no shortage of priestly vocations, only a shortage of unmarried men coming forward for ordination. Qualified women (and married men) are turned away, in spite of a crying need for ministers.

Having heard disclosures from women who have been sexually abused by priests as children or as vulnerable adults, I have witnessed first--hand the inability of the church to heal the wounds of abuse.

Where is the redemptive power of the sacraments for these people? When asked to institute a ministry of healing for women victims of sexual abuse, one bishop's curt reply was, "All those women want is money."

Perhaps it looks that way to bishops because when a woman comes forward with a complaint, seeking a healing process and reconciliation based on the recognition that she has been harmed, the bishop or his representative, after a year or so, tells her "Have your lawyer call our lawyer."

Eventually, to save money and to avoid a scandal, many cases are settled out of court and involve monetary compensation, accompanied by gag orders. There is no redemptive healing or liberating sacramental process here.

There is a very close link between the loss of redemptive Eucharist because of a lack of priests and the abuse of power by clergy. Our church is sacramental in nature. We Catholics perceive the sacred and receive the healing presence of God largely, though certainly not exclusively, through the sacraments of the church, the "visible signs of the hidden reality of salvation" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 222).

It is therefore normal for Catholics to seek God's healing through these channels of grace, particularly the sacraments of reconciliation and Eucharist. But what happens when it is the sacramental minister who has inflicted the wound?

Women who have found some measure of healing and wholeness have often given up on the church and left, largely because they can only receive the sacraments, particularly reconciliation and Eucharist, from the hands of a male priest, anointed for this purpose through the sacrament of ordination. Support groups set up by lay pastoral workers to help Catholic women heal the wounds of sexual assault and exploitation by priests have not been very successful.

On the one hand, most helpers in the healing process are women who cannot--according to current Canon Law, not the Gospel--be invested with the sacred powers associated with sacramental priesthood, and are therefore not seen as effective channels of God's healing grace. On the other, devout Catholic women are often afraid that expressing any anger or resentment over the misconduct of a priest or bishop could bring harm to the whole church and make them unworthy to receive God's healing grace. Seeking redress for an injustice, even one for which they are not responsible, somehow makes victims of clergy abuse feel they are the ones who are unfaithful to Christ and dishonouring the church. It is very difficult to help these women find a path to emotional and spiritual healing if they won't even consider the possibility, that it was not they but the ordained man who acted inappropriately.

One of the most difficult tasks for those who try to help abused women find healing is to convince them that tackling a problem in the church is not the same thing as denying one's Christian faith, a distinction often not clear to the victims nor to the hierarchy of the church.

Until women are recognized as full members of our church and have access to all the sacraments, they will continue to experience fear and frustration--fear of being abused and frustration at not being able to help the abused person heal. As Catholics, we need to cry out for justice and demand that our leaders provide us with ministers of redemptive Eucharist.

We do not need more rubrics and sanctions, we need women and men who are visible and recognized agents of sacramental healing. As disciples of Christ, we are called to heal the broken-hearted (Luke 4:18). We need women who can minister sacramentally to women who have been broken by the sexual abuses of male clergy.

We need to become a truly redemptive and Eucharistic church, heeding the voice of wisdom and finding in Her the strength to speak the truth to the men in authority: "This is wrong, this has to change, this is hurting the People of God."

Even at the risk of being ridiculed, dismissed, and even punished as Jesus was for speaking the truth to power.

Speaking the truth to power can be a catalyst for true conversion and renewal of the sacramental life of the church, making it an effective instrument of redemptive healing.

Marie Evans Bouclin of Sudbury, has an M.A. in theology. She is on the national work group of the Catholic Network for Women's Equality (CNWE) and the current Coordinator of Women's Ordination Worldwide.

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