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It would be wonderful if we could always arrive for Mass with only joy and hope. Yet most of us, myself included, celebrate this Mass with a sense of grief and anguish. It is a grief and an anguish brought about by the sexual abuse crisis that continues to trouble deeply even the most faithful of Catholics, a crisis that lingers in spite of all that has been done in the last decades to create safe environments in the Church and to purify and strengthen seminary formation.

Our happiness, our fulfillment, lies in giving everything back to God, not just what we have but our very lives. And we give our lives back to the Lord when we worship him, when we strive to lead good and virtuous lives, embrace whatever vocation we are called to, and when we serve the poor and vulnerable.

As a bishop, I am deeply humbled by such abject failure as I stand before you tonight, and not only humbled but haunted by the enormity and evil of this crisis. As best I can, I shall strive to listen to and walk with the laity in searching for and implementing meaningful and further reforms.