Multi-tasking Gone Wrong:  I’m quickly learning as I “advance in years” that multi-tasking is a skill I’m quickly losing ground on!  My multi-tasking skills were great a few years ago.  Today, forget it.  If I don’t complete a note on my phone or input an appointment before the next interruption, I’m in trouble.
 
A few weeks ago, someone asked to be anointed before mass.  This usually is an easy task.  I still had time before mass so I went and retrieved the key for the cabinet where the oils are stored.  I also grabbed the ritual book.  Once all the necessary items were in my hands, I went down to the pew and started to pray with the family.  I had my ritual book in one hand and oil stock in the other.  In the middle of praying, my phone went off.  Unfortunately, I forgot to silence my phone so it was blaring away with my digital bells ringtone.  The noise from my now blaring phone was annoying and equally so was the vibration from my smart watch.  I have a Samsung Gear Classic that is synched with my phone.  I like the Gear Classic because it looks like a watch and has a “spinable” glass bevel.  The watch is a fully functioning cell phone with its own number; if I don’t have my phone handy, I can make and take calls from my watch.  I know it looks weird watching me talk to my watch, but this is just what Father Gadget does!  At this point, I had my phone blaring and my watch vibrating like crazy.  With hands still full with my ritual book and oils, I tried diligently to lift up my alb so I could access my watch to push the option to send the call to voicemail.  As I did so, I pushed the wrong button and instead answered the call.  The caller, from the tiny speaker on my watch, kept repeating, “HELLO?  HELLO?  Monsignor, are you there?”  Knowing all of this already looked clumsy, I decided to hang up on the caller without saying a word.  That was a mistake because the person called back.  Once again, we had to put up with my blaring phone and I had to deal with a pulsating watch.  After what seemed like an eternity, the call finally went to voicemail and I hoped beyond hope the caller wouldn’t call back again.  The 20 something year olds sitting with their grandparents appeared rather entertained as they watched me clumsily juggle all of these things.  You could tell they were trying not to laugh at the same time trying to be serious and respectful as I continued on with the prayers.  I could only imagine what they were thinking.  They probably thought the poor old Monsignor couldn’t handle all the technology.  Hardly Watson!  He can handle the technology.  He just can’t multi-task anymore!
 
Detroit News Sunday Op Ed Piece on the Sex Abuse Scandal:  This may be old news if you are on any of our parish email lists (since I sent it out to the whole parish) or if you saw my column in the Detroit News last Sunday.  I was asked by the Archdiocese of Detroit to author an op-ed piece for the Detroit News on providing thoughts for Catholics on how to heal following the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report.  Knowing not everyone may have received my email or saw the Detroit News column, I wanted to reprint that piece here:
 
Many years ago, I sat with a survivor of clergy sexual abuse as he tearfully recounted his story. Behind him, a large crucifix hung on the wall. As he shared his horrific experience, he recalled that when he first came forward to family, no one believed him. He then pointed to the cross and said there was only one who listened: Jesus Christ. It was that relationship with Christ that helped him recover and survive.
 
Survivors like this man have blazed a trail that all Catholics can follow as we grapple for answers in the days, weeks and months following the release last week of a grand jury report detailing atrocious acts of child sexual abuse at the hands of some clergy in six dioceses of Pennsylvania. The accompanying press conference was difficult to watch, because it brought us face-to-face with the suffering of more than 1,000 survivors. These individuals struggled for years – even decades – to seek some sense of peace in their lives. They often did so in silence, because, like the man with whom I spoke many years ago, they feared no one would believe or listen to them.
 
Listening to victim testimony is not new to me. For the past nine years, I have been part of a team entrusted with dealing with clergy sex abuse cases in the Archdiocese of Detroit. I hear firsthand the heartbreaking testimonies of abuse and misconduct. Each time, I shake my head and wonder how and why any of it could ever have happened.
 
As I reflect on these difficult times, I challenge myself and the people I shepherd to follow the example of these brave survivors: Keep focused on Christ, his love for each of us, and the mission he has given to his people to bring about his kingdom here on earth. While some priests and bishops have fallen into sin and turned their backs on those most vulnerable, God never abandons his children.
 
We also must accompany the survivors in their own mission to bring these terrible sins into the light, where those who sinned are confronted and those who were harmed can find healing. Archbishop Vigneron in a letter to the faithful last week pledged his commitment to transparency and to holding all clergy in the Archdiocese, including himself, accountable for their moral actions. I ask that you pray for our community – clergy and laity alike – as we constantly seek to align our lives to Christ.
 
Last weekend, Pope Francis met with 70,000 young Italian pilgrims in Rome’s Circus Maximus, where he encouraged the crowd to “run towards Jesus” and their brothers and sisters “with hearts full of love, faith, and joy.” He explained that a slow pace will not do on life’s journey of faith, only “a quick step and daring leaps.” We need to be bold when faced with incomprehensible evil, especially when it is found inside the Church. We need to take daring leaps and embrace bold initiatives with hearts full of love, faith and joy to bring about the restoration of our world.
 
Enjoy the week.  Know of my prayers.
 
In Christ,
 
gmb
gmb@sjascs.org