Pope tells young: Don’t be put off by priests’ sins

Sydney
4 August 2002

Pope tells young: Don’t be put off by priests’ sins

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Pope tells young: Don’t be put off by priests’ sins

Pope John Paul II listens to the cheers and applause as he joins World Youth Day pilgrims for an evening prayer vigil at Downsfield Park in Toronto

Don’t be discouraged by “the sins and failings” of some priests and religious, Pope John Paul II told a congregation of 800,000 at the closing Mass of the World Youth Day.

He urged the rain-dampened crowd to remain strong in their faith.

“The harm done by some priests and religious to the young and vulnerable fills us all with a deep sense of sadness and shame,” he said.

In a strong voice the Pope – interrupted by cheers and applause – asked the World Youth Day participants to “think of the vast majority of dedicated and generous priests and religious whose only wish is to serve and do good”.

Many of them were present at World Youth Day, he said.

“Be close to them and support them,” he asked.

This was the first time in a public setting that the Pope had addressed the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in the Western world over the past several months.

Earlier this year the Pope had spoken on the issue in closed-door remarks, later released by the Vatican, and in the text of a letter to priests.

During his homily at the close of six days of World Youth Day activities, Pope John Paul took the opportunity to encourage those in the crowd who might be considering a vocation, telling them that “at difficult moments in the Church’s life, the pursuit of holiness becomes even more urgent”.

The Pope told the pilgrims that the essence of the World Youth Day message was that they must decide between the “two voices competing for your souls”, warning them that the “spirit of the world offers many false illusions and parodies of happiness”.

“The greatest source of deception and the deepest source of unhappiness is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility,” he said.

The Pope, who has continually urged young people to make a difference in the world, told them the world they are inheriting “desperately needs a new sense of brotherhood and human solidarity”.

“It is a world which needs to be touched and healed by the beauty of God’s love,” he said.

“It needs witness to that love. It needs you to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.”

He also acknowledged the mutual admiration between him and the crowd.

“You are young, and the Pope is old,” he said, then departed from his prepared text which said “and a bit tired” and instead quipped, “82 is not the same as 22 or 23.

“But he still fully identifies with your hopes and aspirations.

“Although I have lived through much darkness, under harsh totalitarian regimes, I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the hearts of the young.

“Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it.

“We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures. We are the sum of our Father’s love for us and our real capacity to become the image of his Son.”

Before the huge crowd dispersed, the Pope announced that the next World Youth Day will take place in 2005 in Cologne, Germany.

Earlier the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr George Pell, received a standing ovation when he told a catechesis audience of 500 that “abortion is a worse moral scandal than priests sexually abusing young people”.

He had been asked by a youth minister what Catholics should say when asked about the sex abuse crisis in the US Catholic Church.

When the youth minister sought clarification, the archbishop explained that abortion “is always a destruction of human life”.

Dr Pell insisted his comments were not designed to downplay sexual abuse.

He was trying to point out that sex abuse by Catholic clergy had attracted attention to the detriment of other issues.

Christ promises punishment, he said, for those who stray from the Church’s teachings on premarital sex, abortion and euthanasia – as well as on social justice and looking after the poor.

In another catechesis session, the Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Archbishop Francis Carroll, stressed the importance of efforts toward Christian unity.

“If we are to be this light to the world, then all Christians must stand together,” he said.

“The greater the unity of Christians, the brighter will be the light the Church can shed on the world.”