My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

As you well know, the month of June traditionally has been dedicated to the Sacred Heart. Devotion to the Sacred Heart has been a long tradition in the history of our Church. Indeed, the Fathers of the Church, beginning with John Chrysostom, spoke about the blood and water that came forth from the heart of Jesus not without a purpose. The water regenerated us and we are nourished by the blood and the flesh of Christ. Hence, the mystery of Christ is revealed through the outpouring from Christ’s heart.

St. Justin, martyr in the second century, said, “We Christians are the true Israel which springs from Christ, for we are carved out of His heart as from a rock.” The heart of Christ has always been a fascination for the Church. General devotion to the Sacred Heart was made common during the 13th century. In the 17th century, it was popularized even further by a personal revelation to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun, as she prayed before the Blessed Sacrament. She received personal revelations that enabled her to penetrate the mysteries of the Heart of Jesus.

A clear message of the revelation to Margaret Mary was that reparation could be made to the Sacred Heart for one’s sins and for the sins of others. To make reparation according to the common meaning of the term is to compensate for a wrong, an injustice or a suffering caused by someone else or by one’s own fault.

Some have challenged this understanding as not being in concert with the theology of justification. The fact is, we are saved through no merit of our own but in view of our cooperation with the grace offered to us by God. Our good works, or in this case our acts of reparation, allow us to be open to the freely offered saving grace through Jesus Christ.

The need to make reparation in our world today is more necessary than ever. In 1928, Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical “In Reparation to the Sacred Heart,” made this point to the bishops and faithful of the world, “Now, how great is the necessity of this expiation or reparation, more especially in this our age, will be manifest to every one who, as we said at the outset, will examine the world, ‘seated in wickedness’ (1 John v, 19), with his eyes and with his mind. For from all sides the cry of the people who are mourning comes up to us, and their princes or rulers have indeed stood up and met together in one against the Lord and against His Church (cf. Psalm ii, 2).”

Most recently in our own time, within the bosom of the Church, the scandal of the sexual abuse by priests and others connected with the Church has been a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance. But what reparation can we make to the Heart of Jesus to those who were harmed?

In this spirit, I have asked the pastors of our Diocese, either on the Feast of the Sacred Heart or sometime during this month of June, to invite the faithful to an Evening Prayer or Holy Hour specifically aimed at making reparation for the sin of sexual abuse against minors, for the healing of those abused and for the recognition and call to penance of those who have abused.

It is never easy to take responsibility for our own faults and sins; however, it is even more difficult to take responsibility for the faults and sins of others. But it is exactly this that the Church is being called to do in this day and age, to recognize the past hurt and inadequacies of our dealings with those who are perpetrators and also for our failures to reach out to those who were abused. There is no human power that can restore innocence to those who have lost it. It is not, however, purely a human experience of sin that we encounter. There is an offense against the divine mercy that also needs to be addressed. If we concentrate on seeking God’s forgiveness and making reparation to the Sacred Heart of Christ, we will find ways by which we can assist those who have been abused and those who, unfortunately, were abusers.

I take this opportunity to pray for all those who offer assistance – counselors, members of the Healing Team, the Diocesan Review Board, priests who minister to those on administrative leave and all who reach out to those who are abused. As a Church we must recognize the reality of sin, make reparation for that sin and pledge that we will avoid that sin in the future.

It is my hope that our new policies and improved ways of dealing with issues of abuse will allow us to put far out into the deep, so that we may eliminate from our midst the evil and sin of child abuse as we work harder to eliminate it from our families and society in general.

May the Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us.