One article getting play in a lot of newspapers and on-line forums recently is about some old nuns in California who are being evicted from a small home which the diocese owns and plans to sell to help finance the settlement with sex-abuse victims. It is a shame that these ladies are being made to move, and I'd presume they were engaged in some sort of ministry in the area which may suffer if they aren't able to find other quarters nearby. However, with few exceptions, it doesn't matter what the diocese does to get the money to pay those victims, someone would be hurt. If they lay people off, then they are hurting those people and their families--and probably cutting services since you would assume those people did something all day. If you close parishes, even underused ones, you are selling our heritage, destroying communities and all sorts of other things. If you sell property (unless it is the bishop's residence or possibly the chancery office) then you are evicting someone. If you spend money in the bank, then donors or thier families complain that they had other things in mind when they donated the money.
I think in some way, we'd all like to see those responsible for this mess punished. It would be great if we could take something away from the perpetrator priests and/or the bishops who covered for them and give it to those who were hurt--that makes us feel just. However, when they come to us and say "We want you to give something up to compensate those who someone else, someone you trusted (or maybe you didn't) but had no control over, hurt" then our hands cover our wallets and we say "Why us?"
Maybe we should just take it as a lesson in the effects of sin, and remember that we are one church, and that what you do does effect me.
Ruth, You hit the nail right on the head---our sin does effect others.
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