Bishop Erik Varden warned Pope Leo XIV and the Roman Curia that corruption within the Church has caused profound harm.<\/p>\n
Falls can humble people when they are \u201cpuffed up,\u201d showing God\u2019s power to save, and can become \u201cmilestones on a personal journey of salvation, to be recalled gratefully,\u201d Bishop Erik Varden said during this week\u2019s Lenten retreat for Pope Leo XIV and the Roman Curia.<\/p>\n
Yet, he warned, \u201cwe cannot afford to be gullible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot every fall ends in exhilaration,\u201d Varden said in the sixth meditation of the retreat, delivered in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican. \u201cThere are falls that reek hellishly, bringing destruction to the guilty and carrying ruin in their wake. That wake is often broad and long, pulling in many innocents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Varden pointed to the grave harm caused by wrongdoing within the Church itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing has done the Church more tragic harm, and compromised our witness more, than corruption arisen within our own house,\u201d he said. \u201cThe worst crisis of the Church has been brought on, not by secular opposition, but by ecclesiastical corruption. The wounds inflicted will take time to heal. They call out for justice and for tears.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facing corruption \u2014 \u201cespecially when we confront abuse\u201d \u2014 Varden said it can be tempting to search for a single \u201cdiseased root\u201d and presume there were early warning signs that were ignored.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes these trails exist and we are right to blame ourselves for not having spotted them in time,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do not, however, find them always.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, he noted that real good can often be recognized in the beginnings of communities later linked with scandal \u2014 meaning it is not always accurate to assume \u201cstructural hypocrisy from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA secular mindset will simplify: When it meets calamity, it designates monsters and victims,\u201d he said. \u201cHappily the Church possesses, when she remembers to use them, more delicate and more effective tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Varden said that \u201cwhere people pursue noble endeavors, enemy attacks will be fierce\u201d and that casualties can be especially numerous where spiritual aspirations are strongest.<\/p>\n
Progress in the spiritual life, he continued, \u201crequires a configuring of our physical and affective self attuned to contemplative maturing, else there is danger that spiritual exposure will seek physical or affective release; and that such instances of release are rationalized as if they were, somehow, \u2018spiritual\u2019 themselves, more elevated than the misdemeanors of ordinary mortals.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe spiritual life is not adjunct to the remainder of existence,\u201d Varden said. \u201cIt is its soul. We must beware of all dualism, always remembering that the Word became flesh so that our flesh might be imbued with Logos.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Hidden glory\u2019 even now<\/p>\n
In the seventh meditation of the retreat, Varden turned to the theme of glory, reflecting on how many disciples \u201cdrew back and no longer went about with\u201d Jesus when his teaching became demanding \u2014 including \u201cdiscourses about sacramental realism, the indissolubility of marriage, the necessity of the cross.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Christ was crucified, Varden said, the group that had walked with him \u201cwas no more,\u201d and only two followers remained at the foot of the cross: Mary and John. Yet, he added, John\u2019s Gospel insists that \u201cthis scene of dereliction manifests Christ\u2019s glory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quoting St. Bernard, Varden said: \u201c\u2018Glorification\u2019 \u2026 \u2018happens in the presence of God\u2019s face\u2019 when, our earthly voyage done, we shall at last behold what in this life we have firmly hoped for, putting our trust in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hope is in the name of the Lord; the reality hoped for will be revealed face to face,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Still, Varden emphasized, a \u201chidden glory\u201d can be perceived even now. He recalled St. Augustine\u2019s teaching that the image of glory is carried in an \u201cobscure form\u201d in this life, to be revealed \u201cexplicit and \u2018luminous\u2019\u201d in the next \u2014 and that while the glory of that image can never be lost, it can be \u201cburied under accumulating layers of darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Church reminds women and men of the glory secretly alive in them,\u201d Varden said. \u201cShe shows us that present mediocrity and despair \u2026 need not be final; that God\u2019s plan for us is infinitely lovely; and that God, through Christ\u2019s mystical body, will give us grace and strength, if only we ask.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the Church manifests the radiance of \u201chidden glory\u201d in the saints and channels it through the sacraments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny Catholic knows what light can break forth in the confessional, in an anointing, at an ordination or a wedding,\u201d Varden said. \u201cMost splendid, and in some ways most veiled, is the glory of the holy Eucharist.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story\u00a0was first published\u00a0by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.<\/p>\n