Good morning from London East. With temperatures forecast to hit 32 it’s London’s hottest day this year and I must admit being happy to be out of the heat of Bosnia and Croatia where 32 would be considered sort of cool!!

This morning as I was praying what kept coming to me was the culture of silence when it comes to abuse or issues in the Church!

Coming from a background in finance where potential problems were anticipated and mitigated it’s hard to swallow the culture of silence no matter what the holy wrapping they put on it!

Even on the London underground the lady on the voice recording encourages all suspicious behaviour to be reported!

“see it, say it, sort it” she says over and over and it must be working as it’s stuck in my head!

So why in so many church circles is it

“see it, shut it, hide it”

and then to make it look holy offer up the suffering for souls in purgatory!

Now just like on the train you wouldn’t go reporting everything and not everything that is reported is serious, but things must be looked at all the same an action taken to avoid accidents and problems!

Sadly my experience in my home church (catholic) is one of being constantly silenced and criticised for speaking the truth and actually trying to help!

It seems to be a case of wait for a big crisis rather than try to prevent one!

I guess Our Lady experiences the same! No matter how much she begs people to pray, only a few take it seriously and yet if a big crisis was to happen all would fall to their knees!

It’s sad that at times people and even church leaders including bishops, cardinals and popes can be so stubborn and resist so much the Holy Spirit who desires to purify the church by sorting out the problems rather than hiding them!

Now some will say that speaking out is a sign that you haven’t forgiven. Forgive and forget they say but this isn’t what christianity teaches! Jesus says ‘forgive and convert’ and not ‘forgive and forget’!

Of course we shouldn’t go speaking out if it’s merely for personal revenge (that actually is unforgiveness) but we should speak out after having forgiven in a spirit of charity!

Any teacher doesn’t put red marks on a students exam paper to shame the student but rather that the student learns from the mistakes and any student really wishing to learn will know this!

So my prayer today is for our church leaders to be humble and to be willing to listen and learn from the people and bring the church back to her glory!

And to those of you with a story, the church needs you, share it!

So no more ‘offer it up and shut up’ but ‘see it, say it, sort it’