Surat Pastoral Paus Benediktus XVI kepada Umat Katolik di Ireland

Forgive is not to forget. Forgive is to let it go.

**********

[caption id="attachment_101537" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="PenderitaanNya untuk keselamatan manusia (diunduh dari Photobucket)"][/caption]

Tulisan ini adalah untuk menanggapi dan atau melengkapi dua tulisan dari dua Kompasianer masing-masing “Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church” oleh Hireka Eric dan Tanggapan untuk Hireka: “Chatolic Priest and Sexual Abuse” oleh Berthy B. Rahawarin.

Adapun semalam ketika penulis menghadiri acara bincang-bincang dalam rangka menyambut Paskah bersama Uskup Agung Liverpool, Mgr. Patrick Kelly di Gereja Katedral dengan tema Jumat Agung, Bapa Uskup sempat mengutip salah satu point (point 6) dari Surat Pastoral Paus Benediktus XVI yang ditujukan kepada korban child abuse di Ireland dan keluarganya.

Kutipan singkat itu sebagai berikut:

6. To the victims of abuse and their families

You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated. Many of you found that, when you were courageous enough to speak of what happened to you, no one would listen. Those of you who were abused in residential institutions must have felt that there was no escape from your sufferings. It is understandable that you find it hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church. In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel. At the same time, I ask you not to lose hope. It is in the communion of the Church that we encounter the person of Jesus Christ, who was himself a victim of injustice and sin. Like you, he still bears the wounds of his own unjust suffering. He understands the depths of your pain and its enduring effect upon your lives and your relationships, including your relationship with the Church. I know some of you find it difficult even to enter the doors of a church after all that has occurred. Yet Christ’s own wounds, transformed by his redemptive sufferings, are the very means by which the power of evil is broken and we are reborn to life and hope. I believe deeply in the healing power of his self-sacrificing love – even in the darkest and most hopeless situations – to bring liberation and the promise of a new beginning.

Speaking to you as a pastor concerned for the good of all God’s children, I humbly ask you to consider what I have said. I pray that, by drawing nearer to Christ and by participating in the life of his Church – a Church purified by penance and renewed in pastoral charity – you will come to rediscover Christ’s infinite love for each one of you. I am confident that in this way you will be able to find reconciliation, deep inner healing and peace.

Untuk surat lengkapnya, silakan anda mengunjungi website Vatican berikut ini: Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, 19 March 2010, Benedict XVI.

Menjadi korban kekerasan memang bukan hal menyenangkan yang diinginkan oleh setiap insan dan memaafkan pelaku kekerasan bukanlah hal yang mudah dilakukan. Tetapi seperti kutipan Bapa Suci diatas, janganlah kita sampai kehilangan HARAPAN. Yesus sendiri menderita atau menjadi korban ketidakadilan dan dosa manusia. Penderitaan Dia yang ditransformasikan dalam KebangkitanNya menjadi hal yang sangat berarti dimana kekuatan setan dihancurkan dan kita dilahirkan kembali untuk sebuah HIDUP dan PENGHARAPAN.

Selamat menyambut Minggu Suci.