Philadelphia Archdiocese To Hold Vigil To Make ‘Reparations’ For Clergy Sex Abuse

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia invites all Catholics to hold vigil for seven hours Friday night in an act of contrition, repentance, and to make “reparations.”  The vigil will be held at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in the city. 

According to a flyer available online, Catholics are invited to “an evening of prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to ask for His mercy upon His Church in this moment of profound crisis.”

The vigil comes in the wake of a Pennsylvania grand jury report alleging that about 1,000 minors were sexually abused by about 300 priests in six dioceses, and that predatory priests had been protected by church leaders in sundry cover-ups. The abuse and cover-ups are alleged to have occurred over “decades.”

Friday’s vigil is aimed at making “reparations” for “all sins of sexual abuse … especially by members of the Catholic clergy,” and for the “cowardice” and “indifference” of those in authority who knew of the abuses but failed to act accordingly, the archdiocese says.

The Archdiocese also hopes the vigil will bring about healing for the victims of sexual abuse, as well as “the purgation of the Church of all evil” and the “rooting out all compromise, infidelity and lukewarmness in our own lives.”  

A “new outpouring of the Holy Spirit” is another hope of the vigil organizers.