SAFE

Anne Kelly
Sep 7, 2018 · 4 min read

As I write my first ever blog, I want the world to know a little of who I am. I am a Christian, I am a follower of Christ. To be even more specific, I am a Presbyterian, PCA just for your clarification. As I write this blog over the next few months I hope to express my care for the little ones. I hope to show that I am concerned about them and the world that they are growing up in. This next generation of young people are growing up in a world where they know way more about things that they should not know about. They have seen things about sex on TV. They see the adds on the computer. They see the video store downtown and know that is “the adult store”. These young children have seen and know about way more than they should. My hope is to express a need for them and express how we can protect them. Protect their ears and their hearts.

As I think of these little ones and their world, I also think of words. The words they see, the words they hear. The words I see and hear.

In a few short days, 244 to be exact, I will be walking across a stage and handed a piece of paper. That paper will stand for all the work that I have done over the past four years. That paper will mean something to a future employer who will see that I did the work to get that paper. The paper I am speaking of here is the diploma, that in 244 long days will be in my hand.

Until that time comes I will be considered a pre-service teacher, an almost teacher, and as a pre-service teacher I am a little bit worried. Worried for the world that I will soon be going into. The world that I will get to go and teach in. I am worried because these kids are dealing with things that they should not have to deal with. They are hearing about people their own age who were abused. They see it on the news in big headlines. Just look at what the Chatholic Church is dealing with right now. Years of abuse to children is finally coming to light. And this is something that we just let slip through the cracks? It is a sin that should be dealt with properly. We should have never let something like this fall through the cracks.

Pope Francis is quoted saying this, “In a special way we ask pardon for all the abuses committed in various types of institutions run by male and female religious, and by other members of the Church. And we ask for forgiveness for those cases of exploitation through manual work that many young women and men were exploited to.”

He wants a pardon on the abuse. That is not okay, a Pope should not be asking that they be pardoned. That was a sin, and a very serious one. In Jerry Bridges book, Respectable Sins he writes, “all sin is serious because all sin is a breaking of God’s law” (20)

The article that I read about the Pope goes on to talk about how the Pope says that the children we have taken of their innocence. Which yes, they were. But if you say that why are you asking a pardon for what is done? Wrongs were made and that is not just something that you can pretend like it did not happen. Yes, they should be forgiven. Because of God and His great love for others, He forgives. But the people who made the mistake, who missed the mark need to ask for forgiveness. It is not just something that the Pope can ask for them.

We need to be thinking of those young children who were hurt because of the actions of the Catholic Church. The church caused them harm. A place where they should have felt safe, it was a place that caused them to be hurt. I feel for these children who have had to go through so much. And it is not just the children who were hurt by the church. It is the many other children who were and are being hurt by abuse. The statistics are scary to read. The children need protection and love. As a future teacher, I want to protect the children in my class and to help them to know that they are loved and cared about.

I want them to feel safe.

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