Lord, renew your church!

As this issue of the Sooner Catholic reaches homes across the archdiocese, the bishops of the United States, myself included, will be gathering in Baltimore for our fall General Assembly. This meeting will not be business as usual. It cannot be. The eyes of the nation will be upon us as we make critical decisions in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis that has ravaged our beloved Church in the United States and in countries all over the world.

To allow maximum time for dealing with these crucial matters, the ordinary agenda of the meeting has been streamlined. We will spend time only on the most important and necessary business. We will begin the meeting with a day of prayer imploring the guidance of the Holy Spirit for our deliberations and decision-making.

During the week leading up to this meeting we bishops have committed ourselves to an intensified time of prayer and sacrifice for three important intentions:

-          For the healing and support of all victims of clergy sexual abuse;

-          For the conversion and just punishment of the perpetrators and concealers of sexual abuse;

-          For the strength of the bishops to be holy shepherds in protecting and keeping their flocks from all harm.

Fully aware of the gravity of these concerns weighing so heavily upon us all, I am humbly appealing to you to join in prayer with the bishops for these same intentions. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us and give us courage. Pray that the fruit of this meeting will be a profound purification of the Church, beginning with the hierarchy.

Christ established his Church on the foundation of Peter and the Apostles. He promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. He promised to be with us always until the end of time. We need to cling to these promises now more than ever. The attacks of Satan have been unleashed against the Church from within and from outside. We are in need of heavenly assistance. We are in need of radical conversion.

I have been a priest for 35 years and a bishop for 14. During my ministry I have never known a more challenging time. The faithful are angry and confused. Tragically, some have walked away. Priests are angry and hurting. Bishops too, are angry, saddened and frustrated.

Please pray for your priests and support them. Please pray for the bishops that the fruit of our deliberations and actions will result in greater vigilance, transparency and real accountability in the way we shepherd the Church entrusted to our care as successors to the Apostles. But, most of all, please pray for the victims of abuse committed by clergy. Lord, renew your Church!