Mass of Reparation for Sins of Sexual Abuse

2024 Mass of Reparation for Victims and Survivors of Abuse

Saturday in the Octave of Easter

April 6, 2024
Saint Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Acts 4:13-21
Psalm 118:14-21
Mark 16:9-15

“Though the Lord has indeed chastised me, yet He has not delivered me to death. Open to me the gates of justice and I will enter them and give thanks to the Lord.” These words of Psalm 118 which we have prayed are exemplified in a particular way in the person of Saint Mary Magdalene who is the first to experience the risen Lord Jesus. The Gospels and Tradition of the Church tell us that Mary Magdalene did not recognize the risen Lord to be Jesus until He speaks her name. Her name, like all human names, carries with it a character of the uniqueness of her person, her dignity, that is the most intimate part of her humanity — even more so than the aggregate of human nature. Her name is what identifies her as being unique as a person in the eyes of Christ — uniquely created and uniquely redeemed. Her name is so much more than a pronoun that cloaks the person in anonymity and isolation. She was denied her name when she was dominated by the seven demons that the Lord cast out from her — the demons that not only included her own sin but even more dramatically the effects of the sins of others perpetrated against her with its resulting anonymity and isolation.

Homily for the Feast of St. Mark

Mass of Reparation for Sins of Sexual Abuse

April 25, 2022
St. Patrick Cathedral
Fort Worth, TX

1 Peter 5:5b-14
Psalm 89:2-3, 6-7, 16-17
Mark 16:15-20

Saint Mark concludes his Gospel with the words that we have just proclaimed and heard, “Then the Lord Jesus, after He spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took His seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.” To obey this command of the Lord Jesus, we gather here this evening to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on this Feast of Saint Mark, the Evangelist, for the intention of reparation for sins of sexual abuse perpetrated against minors by anyone but especially those who harmed minors and violated the trust inherent in a relationship of public ministry in the name of the Church. We ask the intercession of Saint Mark to help heal those who have been harmed by suffering this terrible evil from this grave and mortal sin.