Pastoral Letter: ADSF Assessment

I am grateful for the thoughtful responses to my pastoral letter about the Archdiocese’s bankruptcy settlement that appeared in our e-newsletter last week. I especially appreciate the care many of you have expressed for me as I navigate these difficult waters as your pastor. Some of your comments helped me recognize places where I need to be clearer about what I mean by our shared responsibility as members of the Church. My letter is reprinted below, and I have highlighted those clarifications in bold. 

Dear Sisters and Brothers —

At the end of June, I wrote to you following the announcement that the Archdiocese of San Francisco had reached a $395 million settlement agreement associated with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At that time, I told you that St. Ignatius Parish would be assessed a portion of the settlement and that, when I received that assessment, I would consult with parish and Jesuit leadership to discern our response. I have now received our assessment, and those conversations are underway. I will have more to say about that in the weeks ahead.

Perhaps like you, I have many varied feelings about all of this. They ebb and flow, often vying with one another for my heart’s and mind’s attention. I will confess that I am often tempted to go directly to the practical and to strategizing. However, when I bring this to prayer, Jesus gently walks me back to what is true and deepest. So, before we talk about finances, I believe we need to talk about people.

The settlement seeks to provide some measure of justice to hundreds of people who suffered sexual abuse as children. No financial settlement can undo what was done to them or restore what was taken from them. But it can acknowledge the terrible wrong that was done and partially redress the grave injuries they have carried, in many cases for much of their lives. Our first response, therefore, must be to the survivors: to listen to their experiences, to acknowledge their suffering, to pray for their healing, and to recommit ourselves to ensuring that no one ever suffers physical, verbal, or sexual abuse in the Church.

As I wrote in June, neither St. Ignatius Parish nor any Jesuit or layperson who has ministered here is the subject of any of the claims against the Archdiocese. While that is important for you to know, it does not place us outside this painful history.

We are part of the Church. The abuse of vulnerable people and the failures that allowed it to continue are a collective sin of the Church. But collective sin does not mean collective guilt. Belonging to the Church does not make any of us personally culpable for abuse committed by someone else. It does, however, mean that the work of restoration and reconciliation belongs to us as members of the Church, the Body of Christ. Because we belong to one another, our responsibilities extend beyond what we ourselves have done. As St. Paul reminds us, “if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it.” Our participation in the settlement, then, is neither an admission of culpability nor an act of collective punishment. Rather, it is an act of solidarity with survivors and a recognition that, as members of this Body, we share responsibility for repairing, as best we can, grievous harm done by the Church.

That responsibility also requires us to look honestly at ourselves. 

Safeguarding vulnerable people means more than complying with policies. Certainly, all staff and volunteers who work with children and vulnerable people undergo required background checks and training. We learn to recognize inappropriate and predatory behavior and how concerns about the safety of vulnerable people must be reported. These safeguards are essential, and we take them seriously.

But policies alone do not create a safe Church. Culture matters, too. We have inherited habits and structures in the Church that have sometimes isolated clergy, placed them above and apart, and given them excessive trust and authority while diminishing the agency of laypeople. We have a responsibility to change that. 

At St. Ignatius Parish, we work intentionally to foster a faith community in which authority is accountable, decisions are transparent, and clergy, lay staff, and parishioners share responsibility for the life and ministry of our community. Laypeople serve throughout our staff, commissions, committees, and ministries. Their voices are an essential part of our decision-making. Collaboration and transparency are not simply good management practices; they help create a culture at St. Ignatius in which power is accountable, questions can be asked, concerns can be raised, and vulnerable people are protected.

We should never presume that any institution – including our own parish – is immune from the possibility of abuse. Safeguarding is an ongoing responsibility shared by all of us. We must continue to examine our practices and our culture, listen when concerns are raised, and work together to make St. Ignatius a community where every person is treated with dignity and respect. 

Now, a word about the financial questions that I know many of you have. 

As I said above, we have received the amount the Archdiocese has assessed St. Ignatius. I am currently consulting with our Finance Committee, Jesuit leadership, and others about how we will meet this obligation while remaining faithful to the mission and ministries entrusted to us. I am not yet prepared to tell you what that response will be. I can, however, make two commitments to you now.

First, I will not make a special appeal or ask parishioners to make additional donations to fund our assessment. We will determine how to meet this obligation from the unrestricted resources available to the parish. 

Second, gifts that you have made to St. Ignatius for a restricted purpose are protected and will continue to be used for the purposes for which you gave them. This includes restricted gifts to the Preservation & Promise campaign; our Pastoral Fund, Maintenance, and Social Ministries endowments; Las Vecinas, our immigration ministries, and other donor-restricted contributions. Gifts made through our annual Parish Giving Appeal, including those online, are also restricted and will not be used to fund the assessment. The generosity with which you have entrusted your gifts to St. Ignatius, and the intentions with which you gave them, will be honored.

Even though our discernment is not complete, I wanted you to hear from me now because you deserve to know where things stand. The questions before us are consequential, and I want our decisions to be thoughtful, responsible, transparent, and faithful both to our responsibility as members of the Church and to the mission of St. Ignatius Parish.

I will write to you again when those conversations have led us to a way forward. In the meantime, if you have questions or would like to speak to me about any of this, please do not hesitate to reach out. And please keep the survivors of abuse in your prayers. May our concern for them remain at the center of all that follows, and may our response help, in some measure, the Church become ever more worthy of the trust placed in it.

And, as always, oremus pro invicem.