I was talking about babies crying in church. I might have told you this story before about Bishop Fulton Sheen. This baby was crying and was very uncomfortable so the dad took the kid and was going outside and Bishop Sheen said, "Stop sir. You don’t have to leave. That baby’s not annoying me." The father turned around and said, "Well that’s good to know Bishop, but you’re annoying this baby." There was another guy I knew. I think he used to pinch his kid to get the kid crying so he could go and have a smoke.

I have been your priest now for about four months, and I knew before I came here, or as I came here, that I needed to speak with you about the scandals in the church and these readings today address the problems of the church very directly. Matter of fact, some of you, I’m sure, have the St. Joseph's Sunday missal and it always starts off what is the theme for the readings for this week, and the theme it says is "Our Priests". It’s important, I think, for me to address this difficult subject because I think you need to know what I think and how I feel, because I am your priest. Malachi, in the first reading, is talking to the Levites. The Levites, one of the 12 tribes, the tribe of Levi, one of the 12 tribes of Israel, all of the priests came from the tribe of Levi. Malachi said, "If you do not give glory to my name priests, I will send a curse upon you and of your blessing I will make a curse." And then he says, "You have turned aside from the way and have caused many to falter." Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, and if Malachi was talking to the priests, Jesus was talking to the Bishops. The Pharisees were the leaders of the religion. He said, "Do everything," he tells the people, "Do everything and observe everything they tell you, but do not follow their example. He said, "They are fond of places of honor at banquets and the first seats in synagogues that mark the respect of the public." You should go to a Bishops meeting. There is also a critical mass of ego. You expect the place to blow up. There are many good bishops, but there are some, well, that’s another subject, not here.

In Ecclesiastes it is written, "There is nothing new under the sun". The problems, then, that Malachi was talking about 2400 years ago and the problems that Jesus was talking about 2000 years ago, well, "there’s nothing new under the sun." There are still priests and leaders of our religion in our church who are causing division and scandal and great pain. From the very beginning the church had problems. Indeed, if you look at the first 12 apostles chosen by Christ himself, the record is less than perfect. In addition to Judas who betrayed Christ, James and John were filled with ambition. They were interested in power and wanted the seat at His right side. Thomas denied him. Peter, who Jesus picked to lead the church, said "I’ll never deny you." Peter talked a good game, but before the cock crowed three times he denied him.

In the middle ages, the church went through a lot of difficulties and it’s been kind of happening ever since. Most of the problems involved greed and sexual activity among the clergy. There have been a number of reforms in the church. St. Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12^th century reformed the monasteries of the church because they had fallen into dens of iniquity, sexual licentiousness, greed, even murder. St. Benedict began western monasticism in the 5^th century, but by the time of Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12^th century, a major reform was needed, and he was successful. Later, as we mentioned last month, St. Francis of Assisi, our Patron Saint in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, heard the words from Christ on the cross at San Damiano. He heard, "Francis, rebuild my church", because the church was falling into disrepair, not physically, but because of the leadership, the Bishops, and priests. The great Catherine of Siena in the 14trh century at some point saved the papacy. St. Catherine was the 23^rd of 25 children—her mother should have been canonized. St. Therese of Avila, who we talked about not too long ago on her feast day, reformed the monasteries of Spain with her friend St. John of the Cross, in the 16^th century. Charles Borromeo was a great reformer. After the Protestant Reformation it became obvious we needed to clean up the priests and bishops in the church, so he began a seminary program for the first time. Prior to that a lot of priests were just ordained because of family relationships, etc. So the church as been in reform, I think constantly, perhaps for 2000 years. And we are again entering or in a period of reformation.

The problem has always been the same, the leadership, the bishops and the priests, and, of course, if you think about it, that’s the only problem the church can ever have. The issues are the same. It’s right from Shakespeare: sex, power, greed, money, you know. It’s right from Hollywood; it’s the human condition. The problem is always leadership. I was in the army, as most of you know, for 20 years. And in a brigade, if there were 2 battalions, a battalion is about 700 soldiers. If one battalion was all messed up, and the other battalion was in good condition, the division commander, the general, wouldn’t go, "What’s wrong with those 700 men in that battalion?" No, he’d get the battalion commander on the carpet. The same is true at Enron. It’s not the people who have lost their life savings and their pension funds at Enron who are to blame, it’s Kenneth Lay and the leadership at Enron. It’s the same at WorldCom. Many people have lost money in companies. It’s not the little guy who’s to blame, it Bernie Ebbers and his band of leaders. It’s always leadership. It’s never everybody; it’s always those who are in charge, who are leaders, who create the problems.

So today we are in the midst of another problem. It is a terrible, terrible, problem. It can’t be, almost cannot be, overstated. The gross number of, and the perversion of, so many priests. It just drives me crazy when someone says, "It’s just a very small number of priests." That’s not true. There have been over three dozen priests in this archdiocese alone. Three dozen who have offended children, hurt kids, destroyed lives. That’s not a tiny number. That’s a large number. It’s true, the majority of priests are clean, but still, it’s not a tiny little number. And then others said, "Well, it’s the creation of the media." I don’t think the media, I think the media has an anti-catholic bias, but not on this issue. If it wasn’t for the media there would be priests abusing kids this week in this archdiocese because this archdiocese and other dioceses didn’t have the guts or the honesty to confront the problem. It’s not the media’s problem. It’s the leadership of the churches problem. It’s the bishop’s problem, and the priest’s problem, and all of our problems because we’re all affected. Look at the effect of it. Innocent children devastated for lifetime. Many have left the church in your families. Some were just looking for an excuse, boy they’ve got one now. Others left because of matters of conscience. I don’t agree with them, but I’m sure not judging them. Trust in priests has been undermined. And that’s not all bad, but to lead, and a priest is a leader of the Christian community, you need a modicum of respect, you can’t have everyone sniping at you and biting at your heels all the time. Our authority, whatever we had, has been undermined. Church teaching authority has been undermined. Who listens? Who cares what they say, those guys. "They don’t know what they’re talking about," is what so many people say. And money, over a billion dollars, surely, money needed for social programs, and the poor, and hospitals, and to build new church communities, is gone. Every one of you has been hurt, I hope. If you love the church you’ve been hurt.

My mother, God rest her soul, my mom was persecuted as a little girl because she was Catholic growing up in Ireland. She’s told stories of when the British army came and took her father’s bull. She loved her church, and she tried to instill in her children that tremendous love of Holy Mother Church. My mother knew several of these offending priests, and she was devastated. It hurt her so much, just like it hurt you so much. And I tell you it hasn’t been a whole lot of fun to be a priest. If I knew then… Someone said a few weeks ago, "Were you in Vietnam?" I said, "Yeah, I served two tours in Vietnam, one in the 82^nd airborne and one as an advisor." He said, "Boy that must have been terrible." I said, "No, I’ve had far worse years as a priest." Seriously. A couple of years I couldn’t even sleep because I knew what was going on, because everybody knew. We’ve all been hurt.

I had a friend who left the church. His name was Edmundo Delgado, Ed Delgado of Santa Fe. I loved Ed. Ed was married to a Baptist woman from Texas and they had four kids—I think it was four. And Ed, one of the most important things for Ed was to pass on his Hispanic Catholic heritage to his children. I think the Delgado’s have been in Santa Fe for like 400 years. And he was so proud of that heritage. He was a personal confidant and friend of the former Archbishop. Ed used to shop for the Carmelite sisters every week for their groceries, and I think he even paid for it. He was so devastated when he realize the truth of what had been going on that he couldn’t step foot in a church. I saw him at a wedding rehearsal. One of my nephews was being married, and I was a priest and I was in collar and he came up to me and he just cried. He said, "John I’m devastated. I can’t sleep. I hurt." Not long after that he died. He died of a broken heart. I did his burial in a mortuary in Santa Fe and I asked his family for a picture. "I said give me a picture of Ed, I want to put it on my desk", because I was Vocations Director at the time, and I said, "Every time I look at a candidate for priesthood, I’m gonna look at Ed and go, ‘Ed talk to me man, help me.’" I had a picture too, of a guy named Jerry Gallegos, who was an artist who died of AIDS that he contracted through IV drug use who had been abused by a priest. I had his picture on my desk. I still have Ed’s picture, if you know Ed, I’ve got a good picture and I’d like you to see it, see me some time. Where was I?

I could say though, we all have the choice to leave or stay. I’m going to stay though, because the church is my mother. I love the church. She is the body of Christ. You are the church. And frankly I am not going let some bad guys take it away from me. I’m also going to stay because I need the Eucharist. I need to eat His body and drink His blood to have life. And I’m going to stay because this is my family. And I can tell you on a positive note, and I believe this sincerely, we are in a period of reform. We are scrutinizing applicants for priesthood very, very carefully these days. As Vocations Director, I brought in some, was involved in the formation of, some 23 priests and there’s another 20 in the system, and we worked hard to make sure they were psychosexually healthy, responsible men. I can also tell you there is an increasing accountability of the actions of priests and bishops in this diocese and throughout the church in the United States, an increasing accountability. If there’s a whisper of a problem, it’s confronted immediately. Many priests have been removed from office and suspended because they have been a danger. And I hope that we are beginning to deal openly and honestly with our problems. I’m not sure we are. There are a number of priests who are loud vocal nags to the Archbishop who will help him be open and honest with the problems of this archdiocese and of the church.

By the way, the priests meet next week, we’ll be in Taos for our annual meeting, please pray for us. We don’t get along very well. We really don’t. Interestingly, before the scandal, we did. Isn’t that ironic. But as a result of confronting the cancer that is in the body of our priesthood, there are all sorts of conflicts and division. If I come back with a black eye, you’ll know where that came from.

Well, I needed to talk to you today, because you needed to know, and I know I’ll get some letters, and some didn’t like what I said, and whatever, but I needed to say this because you need to know what I think and how I feel because I’m your priest. And one last comment and it gives me hope. We have a wonderful seminarian Mark Schultz who will be ordained a priest this May or June. I love Mark, Mark’s from Texas, you know he sounds like he’s from Texas, and I said, "Mark, hurry up and get ordained Mark, ‘cause I’m sick and tired of being the ugliest priest in the archdiocese. " Mark was interviewed some time back several months ago, by The Oregonian. He goes to school in, near Portland, Oregon, Mount Angels Seminary. Mark was asked this question, the interview concerned this scandal, Mark was asked, "Do you think the church can recover from these wounds?" And without thinking, Mark looked up and there was a crucifix on the wall and he said, "I believe it can, because the church is built on wounds.’’ And I believe it can too, and it will. Thanks for listening to me today.

God Bless you. (Applause)