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Test Spirits..(I John 4:1)
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'We have realised that these wounds never disappear,' Pope Francis says Chris RiottaNew York
Pope Francis
has condemned the “atrocities” of child sex abuse and cover-ups by the
clergy in an open letter to the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.
Addressing a US Grand Jury report revealing decades of alleged sexual abuse inside the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, the Pontiff described allegations
against the Church as “crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and
powerlessness” in victims, their families and the religious community.
“The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced,” he wrote.
“But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to
silence it, or sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its
gravity by falling into complicity”.
The report
detailed at least 1,000 cases of alleged sexual abuse committed by 300
“predator” priests in Pennsylvania — and what was a systematic cover-up
by Church officials.
The majority of cases included in the report occurred before
2002, when the US Catholic Bishops adopted strict guidelines towards
sexual abuse reports, including immediately contacting local police and
immediately removing accused clergy.
In its report, the US Grand Jury wrote that the actual number
of sexual abuse victims across several dioceses in Pennsylvania was
probably “in the thousands” thanks to underreporting of potential
crimes.
Willow Creek Community Church founder Bill Hybels resigns amid sexual harassment allegations
“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of
God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all.
For decades,” the report said.
Pope Francis decried the alleged abuses in the open
letter published on Monday, writing: “It is essential that we, as a
Church, be able to acknowledge and condemn, with sorrow and shame, the
atrocities perpetrated by consecrated persons, clerics, and all those
entrusted with the mission of watching over and caring for those most
vulnerable.”
“We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned
them,” he continued. “The extent and the gravity of all that has
happened requires coming to grips with this reality in a comprehensive
and communal way. While it is important and necessary on every journey
of conversion to acknowledge the truth of what has happened, in itself
this is not enough.”
Vatican was warned about paedophile priests in 1963
Despite vowing
reform and paying billions of dollars to victims of abuse, the Church
continues to suffer from allegations of sexual misconduct.
“I am conscious of the effort and work being carried
out in various parts of the world to come up with the necessary means
to ensure the safety and protection of the integrity of children and of
vulnerable adults, as well as implementing zero tolerance and ways of
making all those who perpetrate or cover up these crimes
accountable,” Pope Francis wrote. “We have delayed in applying these
actions and sanctions that are so necessary, yet I am confident that
they will help to guarantee a greater culture of care in the present and
future.”
It looks like the beginning of the end at Willow Creek. They aren’t saying that, but I feel like that’s what’s happening. If so, good riddance.
And you can take the megachurch movement you spawned with you.
I’m sorry if I sound bitter. I’m not, really. More relieved than
anything else. Saddened for the stories of abuse, gaslighting, and hero
worship. Grieved by the commoditization of human hearts and souls, the
theological void, and the liturgical collapse. But relieved that this
sad chapter in American religious history is rattling to an end.
Stanley Hauerwas said that the church growth movement was “the death gurgle of a church that had lost its way.”
Well, one of the biggest players is dying a quick death.
It was bound to happen anyway, regardless of the specific failures of
Bill Hybels and the inept, buffoonish response of the Willow Creek
board.
See, the rest of us are tired. We’re tired of having to compete with
the downtown destination or suburban center house of entertainment that
calls itself a church. We don’t have the energy, we don’t have the
resources, we don’t have the desire, but we’ve felt like we’ve had to
conform. Because you were growing, and we were shrinking! We felt like
we had to do something drastic.
Paranoia struck so deep in our hearts and souls that, in desperation,
we cried out for your bag of tricks. So we signed up for your silly,
overpriced conferences. We copied the happy, clappy dreck you dared to
call worship. We tried to find a charismatic leader like yours. We tried
to be a mini-Willow in our own neck of the woods. We gave up ourselves:
our message, our mission, our liturgy, our identity.
No more. We’re tired. We’re disillusioned. We’re embarrassed. We’re just done.
After decades of believing churches like Willow Creek had discovered
the antidote, after 25 years of copying, emulating, strategizing, and
leadership conferencing, we’re finding out that we’ve built our
behemoth, nondescript church buildings on the sand like the foolish
people we are.
Well, Weeping Willow Creek and all others of its ilk, we’re on to
you. We see the chinks in your armor, and they’re gaping open ever wider
with each passing day. Another one of your empires has fallen, and
others will follow soon.
We should have known all along. Celebrity pastors cannot possibly be good shepherds to their people.
Attractional worship is only entertainment, nothing more. A fast food version of Jesus can never be the real version of Jesus.
The church growth movement leads to a bloated, unhealthy body of people who don’t really understand what they’ve signed up for.
Capitalism does not hold the keys to evangelism.
The Pastor as CEO idea will always fail, often with far-reaching, disastrous results. Big churches are not good role models for the rest of our
churches. In fact, their methods will ruin us, too, if we’re not
careful.
Though Willow Creek and those like it may crumble and fall, the
church will go on. God will preserve it, and none else can stop it. We
know that the cosmic renewal, redemption, and restoration has already
begun, set in motion by God’s mighty acts in Jesus Christ.
But here in this culture, it must almost begin anew. The megachurch
movement was nothing more than a last ditch effort to save a church
created in our own image. The calling is clear: Christ must be born
again within us.
So church, it’s time to rediscover your sacred, holy identity. It was
never just about filling pews. Go on about the gospel that still calls
to you. Go on with your liturgy. Preach the Word, administer the
sacraments. Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God, even as it
become more novel, more strange, and more isolating. Spread the great
and glorious news that Jesus Christ has brought into this world, even
when your culture no longer gives it lip service.
After all, church, what does it proffer you if you gain thousands of butts in your seats, but give up your heart and soul? Nothing. In fact, church, you lose, and you lose big.
Adding more campuses is not discipleship.
Hiring more staff is not church growth. Getting more butts in the seats is not evangelism.
So free yourselves from the church growth obsession.
Free yourselves from your slavery to numbers. Free yourselves from
the neurotic counting. Free yourselves from the mind-numbing, maddening
task of data disaggregation. Release yourselves from the anxiety over
empty pews. Realize that you don’t have to keep wondering what you will
eat or drink or wear if your budgets shrink.
Remove the [obsession with church] growth. Free yourselves from what your Americanized gospel thinks of
as success, because if you don’t, you may just end up in the same boat
as this giant.
Resist the temptation to use worship as a hook, a holy
bait-and-switch. Because your message is sounding more and more like an
unwanted, confrontational Amway spiel. It sounds like you want people in
your services because you’ve got some property for sale somewhere
that’s too good to be true.
Free yourselves for the higher calling of the Gospel of Christ. Be
who you are called to be. Stop counting. Stop strategizing. Jesus
promises that he is engaging enough, even though the most numerically
successful churches claim otherwise. Maybe it’s time we stop trying to top him, and just take him at his word.
Willow Creek church pastor, board resign amid sexual misconduct investigation of founder
published 6:35 a.m. ET Aug. 9, 2018 | Updated 11:24 a.m. ET Aug. 9, 2018
Board members and a new pastor at a
Chicago-area megachurch are resigning, saying they mishandled sexual
misconduct allegations aimed at the church’s founder.
Bill Hybels, 66, resigned
from his position as pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in April
after a series of sexual misconduct claims he described as “flat-out
lies” became public. Wednesday, lead pastor Heather Larson announced her
resignation and that of other church elders, who she said are sorry for
not handling the allegations against Hybels properly.
"In
recent days and weeks, it has become clear to me that this church needs
a fresh start," said Larson. "The staff, this staff that I dearly love,
they also need a clean running lane to heal, to build, to dream."
She
read a statement to a full congregation during a meeting at the
church’s South Barrington, Illinois, campus, where the news was met with
applause and also protest with at least one person approaching the
stage, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“We can now see this investigation was flawed. … We viewed the
allegations through the lens of trust we had in Bill, and this clouded
our judgement,” elder Missy Rasmussen said in a statement posted to the
church's website.
Rasmussen
said Hybels, who has been accused of suggestive comments, an uninvited
kiss, hotel room invitations and an extended affair with a married
woman, worked "without the kind of accountability he should have had."
She also said the elders believe Hybels did not publicly admit the
extent of his actions.
The elders apologized for not believing the women who came forward, some who directly worked for Hybels.
Lead teaching pastor Steve Carter resigned on Sunday, after hearing of "horrifying" allegations against Hybels reported by The New York Times.
Regional campus pastor Steve Gillen was named Willow Creek's interim lead pastor.
Willow Creek Community Church agreed to pay more than $3 million to
settle lawsuits over the sexual abuse of two developmentally disabled
boys by a church volunteer, court records show.
The second and
largest of the settlements, for $1.75 million, was made in February,
before the Tribune revealed unrelated claims that the evangelical
megachurch’s founder, the Rev. Bill Hybels, engaged in inappropriate
conduct with women, eventually leading to his early retirement and, this
month, the resignation of the church’s two leading pastors and its entire board of elders.
The
influential South Barrington church also agreed last year to pay $1.5
million to another victim of former volunteer Robert Sobczak Jr.
Sobczak,
now 24, is serving a seven-year prison sentence after pleading guilty
in 2014 to sexually abusing an 8-year-old boy with special needs at the
church and an older boy who was not connected to Willow Creek. In 2013,
Sobczak pleaded guilty to sexually abusing another disabled boy, around
age 9, at the church, and initially received probation in that case.
The civil lawsuits filed against the church by the
families of the two younger boys, identified by the pseudonyms Jack Roe
and John Doe, claim Sobczak abused one of the boys repeatedly, and that
the church should have acted on warning signs before he molested his
second victim.
Willow Creek did not directly address questions
about the settlements, but issued a written statement calling the
experience “heartbreaking.”
“Since these incidents occurred,” the
statement read, “we have worked with law enforcement and security
experts to learn how this happened and how we can ensure it never
happens again.”
Despite the church agreeing to the financial
payouts, the John Doe settlement says Willow Creek “has denied and
continues to deny all material allegations of negligence and damages in
this case.” MORE COVERAGE: Willow Creek’s journey from defending pastor to accepting accusations unfolds slowly, ends in mass resignations »
There
are no allegations that Hybels had any connection to Sobczak’s case.
Hybels stepped down from the helm of the church in April, six months
ahead of schedule, amid claims of inappropriate behavior with women,
including employees.
Sobczak was a volunteer “buddy” for Willow
Creek’s Special Friends program for children with intellectual or
developmental disabilities or other special needs.
According to Cook County prosecutors, Sobczak separately took the two boys to an isolated area of the church and molested them.
Church policy called for there to be at least two adult
volunteers with any single child at all times, but Sobczak repeatedly
broke that rule, the lawsuits alleged.
Attorneys for the family of
Jack Roe wrote that he was 8 years old when Sobczak molested him in
February 2013. That day, the boy told his mother, who told church
officials, who contacted police, which triggered the criminal
investigation and the first sexual abuse charge against Sobczak. The
lawsuits alleged that Sobczak abused John Doe multiple times prior to
that. MORE COVERAGE: Willow Creek to launch another investigation of allegations against Bill Hybels »
Based
on statements from church workers as part of the court proceedings, one
of the lawsuits alleged that officials had previously raised concerns
that the ministry “was understaffed, not trained properly, and did not
have the financial resources to establish a safe and proper program.”
In
January 2013, the suit alleged, a church worker had raised concerns
that Sobczak was “emotionally unhealthy” and should be removed from
program, but that he remained with the program and abused a second boy
after that. As a result, the suit stated, the second victim suffered
great mental and emotional harm, and was undergoing therapy.
Church
officials previously said Sobczak had undergone a rigorous background
check before he began to volunteer and was immediately suspended when
the allegations arose.
Attorneys involved in the civil cases said
they could not discuss them because of confidentiality agreements
required as part of the settlements.
In their statement, issued in
response to questions about the settlements, Willow Creek officials
said they redesigned the room at the church for those children with
special needs so there are no longer isolated areas or sensory rooms and
all participants are visible to all staff at all times. In addition,
participants cannot be removed from the room at any time, and the church
has enhanced its volunteer requirements, while also requiring
electronic IDs to access to the room.
The church stated that members continue to pray for the families of the two children, and “hope for healing.”
