WASHINGTON — In a crowded bar, bustling with young adult Catholics from the Washington area for the monthly Theology on Tap, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory shared his pain over what this archdiocese suffered in the past year due to priestly abuse scandals, and encouraged the young adults to turn to the Eucharist as a source of healing.

“I’m not quite as young as you, but I, too, am let down by the leadership in the Church,” Archbishop Gregory said. “I’ve been embarrassed. I’ve been embarrassed as a Catholic, as a priest, and as a bishop, because of the behavior by some of my fellow clerics.”

“When the family has been embarrassed, everyone in the family feels embarrassed, and I do too,” said the 71-year-old archbishop. “I know this past year has been an extraordinarily painful year for Washington.”

“You cannot be a Catholic and sit on the sidelines,” Archbishop Gregory told the young people. “To be a member of the Church means you’ve got to get in and get your hands dirty in the mix of the whole arena of faith from what we believe and profess to how we live and treat one another. … You can’t not invest yourself into this family.

“To belong to a family means that you are invested in the life, the struggles, the pain, the joys that belong to being a member of this family, and that includes our faith, what we hold as true, and also it involves our investment in social justice dimensions of our faith. You can’t be a good Catholic invested in eucharistic adoration, but unconcerned about the poor, those waiting to be born, those on death row. You’ve got to buy the whole lot.”

Sponsored by DC Catholic, the young adult ministry of the Archdiocese of Washington, Theology on Tap invites young adults ages 21 to late 30s into monthly discussions about living out the Catholic faith in the world.

The archbishop made a commitment during the evening to restore the trust in his archdiocese, mainly by being an “ordinary member of this local Church,” he said.

He also shared his hope to bring a “Laudato Si’” action plan to the archdiocese, similar to what he helped form in Atlanta alongside the University of Georgia.

The archbishop also encouraged parish churches to be open for more times of eucharistic adoration, with the hope the Eucharist can bring healing to the local Church.

Many young adults said they were encouraged by the archbishop’s answers to their questions.

“To belong to a family means that you are invested in the life, the struggles, the pain, the joys that belong to being a member of this family, and that includes our faith, what we hold as true, and also it involves our investment in social justice dimensions of our faith. You can’t be a good Catholic invested in eucharistic adoration, but unconcerned about the poor, those waiting to be born, those on death row. You’ve got to buy the whole lot.”

“It’s a tough time to be Catholic,” Nadia Barnett, a member at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Silver Spring, Maryland, said, noting how she appreciated the archbishop’s emphasis on the family of the Church.

“His commitment to being the listener is refreshing,” Barnett told the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington. “Especially here, at a bar.”

Jaime Narbon, who has been in the area for the past seven years, said the archbishop “seemed to me to be a person that knows how to reach out to communities.”

“He acknowledged the pain the Church faces, acknowledging the fault and culpability that the clergy has had in the whole crisis,” Narbon continued. “He didn’t put away blame or sugarcoat it.”

“But more importantly about the Eucharist as a source of healing,” Narbon said. “The Church stands by the teaching of the Real Presence. He encouraged priests, religious and laity to be engaged.”