Challenge to Roman Catholic clergy at Voice of the Faithful award

This commentary from 2012 is not dated.  It's like the remarks recorded by Father Patrick Bergquist are even more important and relevant in 2018, because this terrible abuse scandal is becoming more pervasive than anyone could have predicted. 

"My challenge then – really my plea to all my brother priests – is that we not shy away from this scandal – but instead choose to embrace it: taking on the shared guilt of our brothers – even as we dare to share in the sacrifice of Jesus. For this is our cross to bear – the cross we take up without fear or regret – without anger or resentment – but instead with great humility and even greater hope.”

Fr. Patrick Bergquist Accepts Voice of the Faithful Priest of Integrity Award

Fr. Patrick Bergquist accepts Voice of the Faithful Priest of Integrity Award.

Fr. Patrick Bergquist of Fairbanks, Alaska, accepted the Voice of the Faithful Priest of Integrity Award during the movement’s 10th Year Conference, Sept. 14-15, 2012, at the Marriott Copley Place Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts. 

Following are his acceptance remarks:

First and foremost, I sincerely want to thank Voice of the Faithful for continuing to be that consistent and prophetic voice crying out in the wilderness in which we – as church – now find ourselves.

“Ten years ago, when this sad and sordid story was breaking – and breaking yet again her in Boston – the ice up north in Alaska was really just beginning to crack. But when it did eventually break – it exposed a tale seemingly so tragic as to make even the good heavens above begin to wake and weep.

“To all my sisters and brothers who have been hurt and violated and abused at the hands of my brother priests – I am truly, truly sorry. And to all my sisters and brothers who have had to share in the bitter shame and disgrace of our church at the hands of my brother priests – I am heartily sorry. And to my sisters and brothers – most especially Native Alaskans – who have had their innocence, their language, their culture forcibly and cruelly ripped from their hearts and souls – I am deeply, deeply sorry.
“As a priest and poet of sorts, I must confess – that I live and write and work from a place of deep sorrow and pain. And yet, I can never forget this is also a place of even deeper hope. And though I fear – as I wrote in The Long Winter’s Night – that ours might just well be a winter’s night barely half spent – I nevertheless have decided to hope and pray and strive for spring: even if it is just the promise of that spring that waits beneath the weight of the winter’s snows.

“And as someone of faith, I refuse to believe it’s simply coincidence or happenstance that we’ve gathered here today on the Feast of the Triumphant of the Cross – or that the Scripture readings for Mass this weekend include both Isaiah’s Suffering Servant and Jesus’ own foretelling of His Cross; including the invitation that – ‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny themselves – take up their cross, and follow me.’

“My challenge then – really my plea to all my brother priests – is that we not shy away from this scandal – but instead choose to embrace it: taking on the shared guilt of our brothers – even as we dare to share in the sacrifice of Jesus. For this is our cross to bear – the cross we take up without fear or regret – without anger or resentment – but instead with great humility and even greater hope.”