Toward Healing and Renewal

In recent years the sexual abuse of minors by members of the church, and especially by priests, has been a scandal both to church leaders and to many people worldwide. For his part, Pope Benedict XVI has himself spoken about this issue in his Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland when he said that “grave errors of judgment were made and failures of leadership occurred." The Holy Father is convinced that the crisis caused by the revelation of such abuse should be for all pastors and members of the faithful an “impetus for honest self-examination and a committed program of ecclesial and individual renewal." The goal of the symposium Toward Healing and Renewal, which took place at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome from February 6-9, 2012, was to help bishops, religious superiors, and others in positions of special responsibility to make an honest examination of conscience, as requested by the pope, and to be a stimulus to personal and ecclesial renewal. This symposium was intended to be another step in a long and painful journey which the church has undertaken to make in order to deal with what Pope Benedict has called the “open wound” of abuse. With the publication of these proceedings, the organizers of the symposium and the editors of this volume express their hope that this symposium will contribute to greater decisiveness, transparency, and awareness of the responsibility of all in the Catholic Church in dealing with the difficult question of sexual abuse. They fervently trust that this volume will be a source of inspiration and encouragement on the path to healing and renewal. †