Mass for Healing and Reconciliation

Once again, welcome everyone.

We gather together to pray for healing for all survivors of sexual abuse, in particular members of the Notre Dame community who have suffered sexual abuse.

We know that such abuse is always extremely harmful and disturbing, but especially when the abuse is committed by people we are encouraged to trust; to whom we look for advice and support.

It is particularly distressing and destructive when committed by priests and religious, the very people who are expected to help others to recognize the presence of God in their lives. We know that our own campus community has been impacted by such abuse, and, because we are a community, all of us are diminished by it.

So, as president and as a priest, I want to express my profound sorrow and my sincerest apologies to survivors of such abuse.

Let me speak directly to those of you who are survivors. Thank you for your courage in sharing your extremely painful experiences. I can scarcely imagine how difficult it was for you to do that. What happened to you is wrong: it’s totally inexcusable and it goes against everything we stand for here at Notre Dame. From the bottom of my heart, and on behalf of the entire University, I am sorry.

I am so sorry for the abuse you experienced and I am so sorry it has taken this long for the truth to come to light. Know of our desire here at Notre Dame to do everything we can to support healing, and to do everything in our power to ensure that the abuse you endured never happens to anyone here on this campus ever again.

The Gospel we just heard is the Gospel of the day assigned by the Church. I did not choose it myself, but it does very much connect with our special prayers today for survivors of sexual abuse.

We hear Jesus tell a parable about tenant farmers on a vineyard. The owner of the vineyard sends messengers to collect some of the produce. The tenants beat some and kill others.

And finally, the owner sends his beloved son, his very own flesh and blood, thinking they will respect his son. And they treat the son even worse than the others since. He is abused terribly and killed, and they throw his body out of the vineyard. The parallel to Jesus’s own life is clear.

Jesus quotes Scripture: “The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.”

Jesus, God’s beloved son, is the stone rejected by the builders, who suffered rejection and abuse, and who has become the cornerstone.

In this story and throughout his life, Jesus identifies himself in a deep and abiding way with all those who experience rejection and abuse. They are not alone. The abusive behavior they have experienced is not part of God’s plan, and God means to bring healing and peace.

Jesus calls his disciples, he calls each one of us, to be instruments of such healing and peace. That is easier said than done when the scars run so deep; when they are more than physical scars, but emotional and spiritual scars.

They are difficult to address because we cannot erase history. We cannot go back in time, knowing what we know now, and make everything right (although I wish we could). There are wounds in the lives of survivors of sexual abuse that may never fully heal in this lifetime. And those of us who are not victims of such abuse can never fully understand the terrible experiences they have endured.

We can certainly pray that God’s grace may bring about healing and peace—and we are and we will.

However, we need to understand something about prayer. Prayer is not simply entrusting a painful situation to God as though nothing is demanded of us.

There is a great quote from Saint Teresa of Kolkata the speaks to this: “I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do whatever I am supposed to do, whatever I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I am praying for strength. I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.”

As we continue this Eucharist, let us pray that our prayer changes us so that we might change things. Let us rededicate ourselves to cooperating with God’s grace so as to stand in solidarity with the survivors of sexual abuse, including those who are members of our own community. Let us grow in compassion. Let us truly listen, truly care, and do all in our power to ensure that the abuse endured by beloved members of our community never happens again to anyone on our campus, in our Church, and in the wider society.

If we do this, I know together we will be the force for good that God calls us to be. That we will be the Notre Dame that the world needs.

June 1, 2026, Basilica of the Sacred Heart