Viewpoint Standing with those left behind
By ROBERT W. McCHESNEY
When the president of Italy pardoned
Pope John Paul IIs would-be assassin last May, many press commentators
were befuddled. Michael Dobbs, a foreign investigative reporter for The
Washington Post with a longstanding interest in the case, called the
development disturbing. How would the truth ever be known, Dobbs
lamented, now that Mehmet Ali Agca had lost any incentive to come clean?
If some were disturbed, Catholic chaplains and thousands of
volunteers who serve in jails and prisons were inspired. Detention ministers
live with the need for forgiveness on a daily basis. In the Jubilee Year the
pope encouraged the church, through the dramatic pardon of Agca, to look with
mercy and understanding on the prison population.
Yet few victims of violent crime have the personal or spiritual
resources of the Holy Father, and struggle painfully to forgive those who have
harmed them or their loved ones. Church leaders must hear their voice, as they
consider the growing phenomenon of imprisonment.
Yvonne Rivera Huitron is one of those voices challenging the
church to mature. In 1993, Huitrons younger brother Ray was murdered in
Arcadia, Calif. He was 22. It was a shockingly random, senseless crime. The
shooter did not know Ray, and no motive was ever established. There were no
drug or gang variables.
Ray Rivera left behind a strong, proud family, which now became
tortured. How can a good God allow such tragic loss of innocent human life? How
to overcome the sense of divine abandonment, the instinctive pain, rage and
desire for revenge? Crime affects, not only the victim, but also the family
left behind.
What my brother could have been still haunts me, said
Huitron, a campus minister at Alverno Catholic High School in Sierra Madre,
Calif. The oldest of five, she was something of a second mom for her little
brother. Sometimes there is a stinging pain from the joy taken from me
and my family.
Huitron entered a period of deep depression. She sought out
various priests and deacons, but they were unprepared to offer her specialized
support. Fortunately, the lay director of religious education at her parish
encouraged Huitron to stay active in the church. That was decisive. I
felt safe there, Huitron said, because it was a faith context where
I fit in.
If Huitron was able to get through the day, still there was no
inner peace, religious resolution or healing. She was restless, haunted
spiritually. I knew I needed to forgive my brothers murderer, but I
just couldnt do it. I was wrestling with God and needed guidance.
Her friend convinced her to apply to Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles
to complete an undergraduate degree in theology.
Communion of saints
Buoyed by the resources of scripture and Catholic tradition,
Huitron was able to begin to make sense of the murder of her brother, as well
as confront her own inability to forgive the killer. Perhaps most important,
she gradually experienced reconciliation with God through the church. Huitron
happily recalled how the doctrine of the communion of the saints opened her
heart like an epiphany, as she realized for the first time that she
still had available to her a continuing relationship with her beloved Ray.
Huitron graduated in 1997 and is pursuing a masters degree
in theology. Seven years after the crime, a process of transformation has
begun. This was the most difficult experience of my life and yet,
amazingly, it has become a blessing. It has directed my life in a new way,
because I was able to forgive those who trespassed against me.
Huitron is anything but naive. She must try daily to forgive the
young man, whose name and face she has blocked out. But she has no doubt how
far she has come, by the grace of God. Initially, I didnt feel I
had the right, as Rays sister, to forgive. Now -- at least on most days
-- I know my brother is my biggest fan.
Huitrons journey would be remarkable enough if it ended on a
note of personal healing and transformation. But this is also a story of
religious call. Somewhat reluctantly, she finds herself being led to articulate
a vision of how the church might better minister in response to violent crime,
incarceration and capital punishment.
The present framework for detention ministry, which focuses on the
incarcerated, may be too narrow to adequately respond to the complex dynamics
surrounding crime and punishment. Huitron argues for a more integral model,
which addresses the needs not only of prisoners but also of victims, as well as
family members and loved ones associated with both victims and prisoners.
Right now, victims and their family members are an
afterthought, she said, and many report alienation from the church as a
result. After my brother was killed, our friends and many members of the
family and church were afraid of us.
Huitron suggests that dioceses and local parishes be more
intentional in offering support groups and services for family members of both
victims and offenders. An occasional invitation should even be made to bring
together both camps.
Though Huitron was inspired by the popes example of a
personal meeting with his would-be assassin, she herself is not quite ready to
meet with the man who killed her brother, nor with his family.
Someday, she said. In the meantime, we need the church to
walk with us, to establish an authentic relationship, to welcome us.
As Huitron tried to reconstruct her life over the past seven
years, she faced the additional pressure of responding to advocates and family
members who raised the issue of the death penalty. Inevitably, Huitron noted,
the death penalty becomes a defining question for family survivors
of capital offenses. It is a question that not only divides the country, but
the church and even families themselves. Victims families can be
made to feel their case is more important if it carries the death penalty, or
that they dont really love the deceased enough unless they support the
death penalty.
Church leaders need to recognize this phenomenon if they hope to
be successful in their opposition to the death penalty. Huitron agrees with her
church in its controversial public stance, but eschews bumper stickers.
Instead, she suggests that, from the perspective of victims family
members, it is not first a political or legal issue but one of human dignity,
faith and pastoral care.
Bearing the cross
Let the church help victims family members be healed
by supporting our efforts to forgive, she said. Help us to remain
rooted in the body of Christ. Then family members and loved ones may be
free to join the church in its opposition to capital punishment. If you
havent helped us bear the cross, then how can you ask us to help you
reach out to the ones we perceive as the enemy?
Huitrons personal journey and articulate testimony challenge
the church, especially those concerned with detention ministry, to examine the
existing paradigm. Happily, the hierarchy has been listening, and last November
the National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a major statement on crime
and criminal justice. Titled Responsibility, Rehabilitation and
Restoration, it integrates crime victims concerns in an
unprecedented way. Acknowledging that the churchs witness to victims and
their families must be more focused and comprehensive, the bishops
encourage and stand with victims and those who assist them.
The pastoral statement lists several concrete suggestions for
action in its appendix. For example, Catholics should be ready to support
existing local programs that train people for victim ministry, working with
other churches, civic and community groups to form networks of interest. In
addition, parishes themselves should consider initiating victim ministry
programs, with the goal of having a consistent and comprehensive presence
to those affected by crime. The document may well be effective in healing
the alienation many crime victims feel toward the church as well as animating
new pastoral initiatives.
Pope John Paul II proclaimed last July 9 a day of Jubilee in the
prisons of the world, and that day celebrated Mass at Romes crowded
Regina Coeli prison. The goal was to bring the Jubilee Year vision of
forgiveness and reconciliation inside the walls, and so to underscore their
inclusion in the body of Christ. As the prison population in the United States
reaches a mind-boggling 2 million, this is a message the church must heed.
Compelling voices like that of Yvonne Huitron remind the church
that it is time to embrace a more integral paradigm, one that promotes broader
reconciliation in American society. In this regard the Catholic bishops, in
their new statement, have given the church in the United States a marvelous
gift to celebrate the end of the Jubilee Year. Now the challenge shifts to
local dioceses and parishes.
Jesuit Fr. Robert W. McChesney is director of the Jesuit
Refugee Service Immigration Detention Project in Los Angeles and is a member of
the advisory board for the Office of Detention Ministries of the Los Angeles
archdiocese. His e-mail address is rmcchesn@lmu.edu
National Catholic Reporter, January 5,
2001
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