Posted on 10/21/2019 9:18:50 AM PDT by Salvation
In early September, I was summoned to serve on a criminal grand jury here in Washington, D.C. through mid-October. It was difficult and emotionally draining work; I frequently wondered why the Lord would permit such a huge addition to my already overwhelming schedule. When I complained to Him, all I got back was that He wanted me to see something.
Many expressed their surprise that a priest would be compelled to serve. Frankly, as a clergyman, I fully expected to be dismissed. As I discovered, however, grand juries are quite different from petit juries, from which priests, religious, and other sorts of people who might sway fellow jurors are often dismissed. Very few occupations (e.g., active duty military personnel) are exempted from serving on a grand jury.
As that morning unfolded, I began to realize I wasn’t going to escape this time. By noon it became clear that I was going to have to serve not just for one day or one trial but every weekday for the next five weeks, from nine to five. Don’t expect to be called and told not to come in, they warned us, because there’s just too much work to be done; you’ll be reviewing evidence on over forty cases. I didn’t think it was possible for me to get any busier, but I just had. Twenty-three of us were sworn in and marched over to the grand jury room. Suddenly, my tightly scheduled calendar was thrown into complete disarray. My staff was shocked; they were bewildered by all the implications of a pastor being essentially unreachable every working day during normal business hours.
What is a grand jury? Grand juries are called “grand” because they are typically composed of more members than are petit juries. In our jurisdiction, a grand jury has 23 members, with 16 required for a quorum. Petit juries are typically composed of 12 jurors and two alternates. Another difference is that grand juries do not determine guilt or innocence; rather, they examine the evidence and decide whether there is “probable cause” for it to proceed to trial. In effect, grand juries exist as a kind of buffer, protecting citizens from overly aggressive prosecution. If the jury finds that sufficient evidence exists in relation to the charge(s), it returns an indictment. If not, it issues an “ignoramus” (meaning “we are ignorant” or “we don’t know”).
I was not fully prepared for what the Lord wanted me to see. Indeed, I found myself peering into a deep, deep darkness. In the midst of it, though, I also saw light.
As for the darkness, it was very dark. In our jurisdiction there are five grand juries seated and working at any given time. I was assigned to the one focused on the very worst kinds of cases: first degree murder, assault with intent to kill, assault with a deadly weapon, negligent homicide, armed robbery, kidnapping, and aggravated rape. I am not permitted to reveal any details, but I can say that those details are now written deeply in my heart. On many evenings, after hearing testimony and viewing evidence all day, I went into the rectory chapel and wept. So many of the killings and attacks considered by such grand juries are brutal and cold-blooded, not acts committed in the heat of a passion but rather planned and vengeful. Serving on one, I wondered how people could have the capacity to be so cruel to fellow human beings. I don’t know how some of the victims could ever really recover. All I could do was to sigh inwardly and pray as we saw the evidence and heard the victims testify.
Another thing that both surprised me and added to my sorrow was to discover that in so many incidents there is significant video evidence – sometimes of the very crime itself being committed. It is clear to me now that there are video cameras just about everywhere. It is one thing to see a violent crime “committed” in a movie, but quite another to watch a real one. It is impossible for me to drive past certain locations in this city now and not feel a solemn reverence for what I know happened there. May God have mercy on the victims, many dead, but some still living though forever changed. May God also have mercy on the perpetrators, who somehow lost their way in a world of darkness, evil, and hopelessness that so often sets up in the poorest areas of the city.
When God told me that He wanted me to see something, I thought that I had seen it before. As pastor of St. Thomas More parish in Ward 8, I spent eight years living in one of D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods. Even there, however, I was surrounded with a loving, supportive parish family. During that time there were two murders on our parish grounds (one by stabbing, the other by shooting), but we were able to come together and heal. We even responded by building a five-million-dollar community center to try to get kids off the streets and away from gangs.
But this was different. I think it was both the sheer number of violent cases and the “up-close” experience of them through video footage and witness testimony. Although I was surrounded by the other grand jurors, the mandated secrecy outside the jury room meant that we could only discuss things within the formal setting.
Doxology
You told me, Lord, that you wanted me to see something. I did indeed see it. I am now more mindful to pray and offer Masses for what I saw. I am not sure what to do about all the situations that lead to the kinds of crimes we investigated, but I am more aware of the burdens that others carry and the things they suffer, particularly in areas of this city where there is frequent disorder and violent crime. What You had me see weighs heavily on me, but You, O Lord, surely carried the heaviest burden of all when, dying on the cross, the full horror of every sin ever committed or to be committed, including my own, flashed before You and increased Your pain. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for what You endured. I carry only a sliver of the cross You bore; I have seen and know a minuscule fraction of what You do. I can only be more grateful for what You did for us on that dreadful hill of Golgotha, where the full fury of our anger and inhumanity was violently unleashed upon You. I am grateful for Your mercy, Lord, so grateful. We need it more than ever.
I wrote above that I also saw light – in a place I did not expect. More on that in tomorrow’s post.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
He was shocked.
Good.
That’s what God wanted............
I too had a grand jury experience. Some of the cases were almost comic that perpetrators thought they could get away with such obvious crimes. Yes, there are dumb criminals. However some were very disturbing like sexual assaults and especially child pornography. Definitely the experience gives one reason to pause.
Thank you for posting these updates from Monsignor Pope.
I absolutely love Monsignor Pope and wish we had thousands and thousands more like him. He is a national treasure.
Thanks again.
Bump
Good post. thanks
I agree with the treasure part.
I was most touched by his telling us that he went into his chapel and wept.
I often wonder how God feels about all the wickedness and sin in the world.
Do we realize how our sins affect God?
fallen man living in a fallen world
When reading headlines about slam dunk guilty people being let go, this is the reason. What real difference can an individual make posting on blogs like FR verses serving on a Grand Jury voting on the real items of the day? We can post how disgusted we are that a murderer got off scott free, or we can make sure he faces justice by a Grand Jury.
As an example, an abortion doctor might be accused of murder for killing a baby after a botched abortion. A left wing juror might feel sorry the doctor got caught up in a "political" mess that might cause him to stop providing needed abortions. Hopefully, a religious person might think "Who speaks for the baby?" "What was the doctor thinking when he decided he had the right to kill the baby after a live birth?" This kind of thing will get us to the point we will ignore laws thinking we are the final arbiter of these questions. Could this type of thinking end up with "Soilent Green" solutions to stop "global warming?". This is the evolution of evil today because good people wait for someone else to take care of it. We actually have murderers and rapists walking the streets today because they committed their crimes as illegals in a liberal city. If the law is truly blind, just guilt and innocence should be decided by honest people.
I look at jury duty as my ability to finally have my opinion taken into consideration with a measure of real power. More good people with common sense are desperately needed in the US.
Do we realize how our sins affect God?——-
OTOH the things we do right give God great joy. He loves all of us regular folks who just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and sometimes even remember to thank Him for our blessings. Maybe the lesson for Father is never to take normality, stability, peace, and everyday decency for granted.
I am reminded of the Baptismal Rite Oath
I will reject Satan, All of his works, and All of his pomps
Not just pretty words...
Great quote!
To often, those who are called in Christian service lose touch with reality. With what type of Evil people are capable of.
I have seen unrepentant monsters manipulate priests and pastors out of money and sympathy. Then go and brag on social media about it. I have to many in what a friend has called “non profit sector” forget that original sin means we are all fallen, and that when it comes to Evil we are called to be wise as serpents.
Still, it is good to balance that with the hope of redemption. A good pastor/priest will know that his sheep are fallen. Know when to use the law and when the gospel, and how.
But to do that, sometimes you must see a glimpse of what darkness is.
Sadly, I have seen much. Enough that I have lost much of my trust in the “goodness of man”. I view the petition “Thy Kingdom Come” differently than I did as a naive young man.
I feel for Mrgr. Pope. To see that darkness can be shocking. Should be shocking. It is necessary though to understand what some are going through, and are capable of.
Joh 2:24 But Jesus didn’t trust them, because He knew human nature.
Meaning he condemns what faithful RCs did in the past in obedience to your church?
Secular authorities, whatever office they may hold, shall be admonished and induced and if necessary compelled by ecclesiastical censure, that as they wish to be esteemed and numbered among the faithful, so for the defense of the faith they ought publicly to take an oath that they will strive in good faith and to the best of their ability to exterminate in the territories subject to their jurisdiction all heretics pointed out by the Church...
But if a temporal ruler, after having been requested and admonished by the Church, should neglect to cleanse his territory of this heretical foulness, let him be excommunicated by the metropolitan and the other bishops of the province. If he refuses to make satisfaction within a year, let the matter be made known to the supreme pontiff, that he may declare the ruler’s vassals absolved from their allegiance and may offer the territory to be ruled lay Catholics... - Canons of the Ecumenical Fourth Lateran Council (canon 3), 1215; http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.asp.
[Error condemned] That heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit. (Exsurge Domine, Bull of Pope Leo X issued June 15, 1520; http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo10/l10exdom.htm)
And some say Rome wasn’t attempting to control both government and religion at the same time.
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