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PDF versionThe Vatican gets religion on fighting abuse
by John L Allen Jr on Feb. 10, 2012
I've been covering the "Toward Healing and Renewal" symposium this week, a major international summit on the sexual abuse crisis organized by Rome's Jesuit-run Gregorian University and co-sponsored by several Vatican departments. It brought together roughly 100 bishops and religious superiors from around the world ahead of a May deadline from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for bishops' conferences to submit their anti-abuse policies for review.
Although much of what's been said was familiar to people who have been living with the crisis for the last decade, the idea was to share this experience with the rest of the Catholic world, especially places where the sexual abuse crisis has not yet exploded, in the hope that for once, church leaders can defuse the bomb before it goes off.
I've been filing stories along the way, and I won't rehash that material here; links to everything are below. Instead, I'll lay out the big picture to emerge from the summit, which I would express this way: The Vatican has gotten religion on the sexual abuse crisis.
When the scandals in the United States broke a decade ago, reaction in the Vatican was clearly divided between what one might loosely call the "reformers" and the "deniers." What seems indisputable in the wake of this week's event, though it was by no means preordained 10 years ago, is that the reformers now have the upper hand.
To be sure, "reform" by Vatican standards is far removed from the root-and-branch overhaul extolled by some critics. It's not about deconstructing the hierarchical nature of the church, abrogating the Vatican's status as a sovereign state, eliminating celibacy, ordaining women or rewriting Catholic sexual morality; those things were never in the cards.
Instead, the fault lines in the Vatican a decade ago broke down in terms of these sorts of debates:
- Is the crisis largely a media- and lawyer-driven frenzy, or is it a real cancer?
- Should the church cooperate fully with civil authorities, including police and prosecutors, or is that surrendering the autonomy the church has fought titanic battles over the centuries to defend?
- Should the church embrace the use of psychology in screening candidates for the priesthood, or is that smuggling in a secular mentality in place of traditional spiritual principles of formation?
- Should the church support aggressive programs of abuse prevention and detection, or does that risk "sexualizing" children along the lines of secular sex education?
- Is the crisis truly a global phenomenon, or is it the fruit of a "moral panic" largely restricted to the West?
- Should the Vatican sign off on "zero-tolerance" policies, or does that rupture the paternal relationship that's supposed to exist between a bishop and his priests?
Back then it was a jump ball which answers would prevail, and it's not at all clear the smart money would have been on the reform position.
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In a sense, the outcome was probably written in the stars when the champion of reform during the late John Paul years, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was elected pope in 2005. What this week's summit shows, however, is just how thoroughly it's become received Vatican wisdom.
We saw Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican's powerful Congregation for Bishops, presiding over a liturgy of repentance -- effectively symbolizing that the crisis isn't just about wayward priests, but it includes failures by the hierarchy. We heard American Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, concede that much of what's been accomplished to date is due to media pressure, insisting on a "more proactive" approach.
Pope Benedict XVI dispatched a message to the symposium, endorsing the effort to build "a vigorous culture of effective safeguarding and victim support."
The Vatican's top sex abuse prosecutor, Maltese Monsignor Charles Scicluna, bluntly said it is "not acceptable" for bishops to ignore anti-abuse protocols and openly called for imposing sanctions under church law on those bishops who drop the ball. By affording a platform to the architects of groundbreaking abuse prevention and detection programs such as "Protecting God's Children" in the United States, the summit effectively extolled such programs as global models.
The deniers, of course, have not gone away. Some Vatican personnel privately grumbled this week that the entire sex abuse summit was a bad idea because all it accomplished was reviving a negative storyline for the church. The difference between 10 years ago and today, however, is that the deniers have been largely driven underground, and it's the reformers who set the tone.
The Vatican has an unparalleled knack for rewriting history, pretending that the complex result of a bruising internal fight has always been its fixed position. Before long, it may be hard to remember that there was ever a time when Vatican personnel weren't saying and doing these kinds of things -- but there was, and not so long ago.
To be sure, simply changing the tune in Rome doesn't automatically transform the church on the ground.
Just this week, veteran journalist Jonathan Luxmoore published a piece in the National Catholic Reporter out of Poland, featuring the story of a Polish bishop who reassigned a priest even after he had been criminally convicted of abusing a young girl. In the United States, retired Cardinal Edward Egan of New York recently gave an interview in which he appeared to retract an earlier apology for the crisis and to cast doubt on the church's obligation to report abuse claims.
As Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, Germany, put it Thursday in what amounts to a great candidate for the understatement of recent Catholic life: "The work of dealing with the abuse crisis is far from over."
Yet over time, once the Vatican gets into a full, upright and locked position on an issue, it generally does spur bishops and other church leaders around the world into action.
Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a former director of the St. Luke's Institute in Silver Spring, Md., offered a sober, but ultimately optimistic, assessment of what this evolution portends.
The Catholic church moves slowly, he said, and for those who have suffered and who continue to suffer as a result of the church's failures, that's a "sad state of affairs." Yet once the church turns a corner, Rossetti argued, its momentum is basically irresistible.
"When the church finally gets it, and I think it's starting to get it, it will be a powerful force for change."
* * *
On the subject of things that came into sharper focus this week, it seems increasingly clear that the next frontier for reformers is likely to be episcopal accountability, meaning discipline for bishops who fail to implement policies on fighting abuse.
Hints of movement have been in the air. In recent months, I've done on-the-record interviews with some of the biggest names in the American bishops' conference, including Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, all of whom said they would support new mechanisms to hold bishops accountable.
Their position reflects a basic truth: Nobody is more frustrated when a high-profile breakdown occurs, such as those in the United States in both Philadelphia and Kansas City, Mo., than bishops who have worked hard to get things right. They know that such a failure in one place calls into question the integrity of everybody's efforts, including their own.
That note was struck again in an interview this week with Bishop Daniel Conlon of Joliet, Ill., who chairs the U.S. bishops' Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People. He called the debate over accountability "a legitimate question, and a legitimate concern," adding that some new mechanism to ride herd on bishops "may be a step that has to be taken."
The summit got a reminder of how visceral the issue is in remarks by laywoman Marie Collins of Ireland, the only victim to address the gathering.
"Apologizing for the actions of the abusive priests is not enough," she said. "There must be acknowledgement and accountability for the harm and destruction that has been done to the life of victims and their families by the often deliberate cover up and mishandling of cases by their superiors, before I or other victims can find real peace and healing."
Equally strong language came from inside the Vatican itself, in the form of remarks by Sciculna to reporters.
Scicluna bluntly said it is simply "not acceptable" for bishops to ignore anti-abuse protocols established by the Vatican or by their bishops' conference. He said the church in Ireland, to take one example, "has paid a very high price for the mistakes of some of its shepherds."
Scicluna said there are already provisions in church law to sanction bishops for "negligence and malice in exercising one's duties," suggesting this provision should be more strenuously applied. (He appeared to be referring to canon 128 of the Code of Canon Law, which reads: "Whoever illegitimately inflicts damage upon someone by a juridic act or by any other act placed with malice or negligence is obliged to repair the damage inflicted.")
Scicluna also noted that when canon law specifies penalties that can be imposed on "clergy," that includes bishops as well as priests and deacons -- though, he said, the fact it applies to bishops too is sometimes "ignored."
"Ecclesial accountability has to be further developed," he said. "I agree with you on that."
Merely talking about accountability, of course, doesn't do the trick. It has to be enforced, and it remains to be seen if the canonical sanctions to which Scicluna referred will be wielded in some visible, effective fashion.
Yet in Catholic affairs, the capacity to say out loud that something is possible is often the first step to actually doing it. With regard to greater episcopal accountability, it seems safe to say that rhetorical corner has been turned.
[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR's senior correspondent. His email address is jallen@ncronline.org.]
John: Why wasn't the Pope in
John: Why wasn't the Pope in attendance?
As my husband and I read
As my husband and I read John's article that stated there are over 100,000 victims in US alone, two things came into out thoughts:
So many of these little boys (and girls) where raped/molested over a prolonged time frame. The number of these ungodly acts could well into the millions. Dear God, please help us understand.
Our second thought: this article came out 2 days ago. Not one word on the mainstream news, the same news that was 24/7 Jerry Sandusky and his eight allegations (up to this point). Why no mainstream news coverage?
Serious replies only. Thanks
Please, the monstrous nature
Please, the monstrous nature of child sexual abuse, which Pope Benedict does not seem to understand, nor do his bishops and cardinals, is NOT the sin of abusing a child. As terrible as that act is, particularly when it is raised to the 20th power.
The far greater crime committed is the ABSOLUTE ABUSE OF AUTHORITY AND OFFICE. It is a criminal coverup involving lies, distortion, administrative and financial malfeasance, violation of priestly vows, manifest sacrilege everywhere up and down the ranks of the priesthood and the hierarchy continuing who are still in office today.
Let's stop pouring perfume and spices on the dirty linens of these prevaricators and harlots. The world continues to bear witness to a stream of behavior from these pious hand wringing hypocrits which has been hidden and disguised by the Church with the aid and full cooperation of secular authorities going back centuries. Sins which didn't just crop up in the 1970s, but are continuing to this very hour.
PLEASE, JOHN ALLEN: Show
PLEASE, JOHN ALLEN: Show some respect for the thousands of survivors of rape and sodomy at the hands of priests and bishops.
It would seem that you have surgically altered your lips into a permanent "pucker" for the hierarchs.
"Why wasn't the Pope in
"Why wasn't the Pope in attendance?"
His presence would add gravitas to the meeting, indicating that the problem was out of control. That's the last thing the PR men in the Vatican want.
Last month, the Costa Concordia (Italian cruse ship) ran aground off the coast northwest of Rome. What happened after the ship began to sink shows the true colors of its captain. He didn't want to be in attendance when his ship went down.
Ben 16 and the ship's captain have a lot in common! What do you think?
I guess he's "Too Important".
I guess he's "Too Important". Like Hogan's Heros: "I Know Nothing".
It is good that Rome at long
It is good that Rome at long last seems to begin moving.
While I welcome this, reports can make it seem as if Rome is leading the field, whereas they have a long history of refusal to move.
The reaction of Dr Margaret Kennedy, who was abused by an Anglican cleric, may convey the frustration. It is on the MACSAS website - click on the link for February 2012 at http://www.macsas.org.uk/news.htm.
The opening paragraph of her letter is as follows:
"Fr Hans Zollner speaks on Vatican radio concerning the four day symposium in Rome 'Towards healing and Renewal', where Bishops and Religious leaders will learn how to tackle child sexual abuse by clergy. He says “one of the aims of this symposium is to let the victims be heard". This comment is disingenuous indeed. Has it taken the Catholic Church 30 years to agree on such a momentous innovation (sic)? Have not victims been vocal and plain for all of this time?"
"With regard to greater
"With regard to greater episcopal accountability, it seems safe to say that corner has been turned."
John, you have given an extraordinarily weak argument to make a conclusion that the "corner has been turned". Send Law back to Boston, remove Finn as bishop and put let him be a diocesan priest for the next ten year, so that he learns what life really is as lived by the real people and the real children of a parish. Remove Lynn of Philadelphia from any position except that of priest and let him serve a monastery somewhere for, say, the next ten years.
Both Finn and Lynn have obviously shown they lack an understanding of that the real Catholic human beings, the children, mothers, fathers, and pew sitters of a parish actually have feelings and those feelings matter. As for Law, he has been so long cozened by Rome that we can only hope they send him back to Boston to face those he neglected - before he dies. This isn't to punish him - it is to bring closure to those from whom he fled, in cowardice.
And, deal with Poland. Act.
I'll begin to believe it when
I'll begin to believe it when Bernard Law is told to live a life of "penance and prayer" away from his cozy digs in Rome.
Other Observations on the
Other Observations on the Obvious: Just when this magica, Magesterial Conference on Priest Pedophilia is going on in Rome, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee is was trying "to throw out over 95% of the cases" of Priest Pedophilia in its bankruptcy proceedings. 95% of what? 95% of over 500 cases! Does that action show that the Hierarchy of the Church has learned anything? If so, I think that is shows that She's gotten about 5% of the message in how to deal honesty with survivors and victims of Priest Pedophilia. Now, let's look at the abuse of Native Americans at the hands of the Catholic clergy up in South Dakota. According to this latest conference in Rome, indigenous peoples should not be targets of abuse, but this group of "indigenous Survivors" up in South Dakota are being denied justice, because they were unable to file before the Statute of Limitations ran out! Then we have Archbishop Chaput, who is currently up in Philly, fighting the same fight that he successfully won with his high-priced attorneys and lobbyists in Denver, where he successfully quashed the Statute of Limitations from being extended in cases regarding Pedophilia Abuse, in Colorado, for 2 years running. Now, he's been promoted by the Vatican for his successes in Colorado and rewarded with a larger Archdiocese in Philly, where he has brought along the reasons for his Colorado success: his high-priced attorneys from Denver. Hardly anyone is suggesting this, but why is he closing and unprecedented number of Catholic grade schools and high schools in Philly? Could it be in order to pay his pricey Denver Attorneys? Then, we have Cardinal Egan, who claims "I made a mistake," in saying that I did anything wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!! How much has the American Hierarchy learned? As we say in some circles here in Colorado, "Absolutamente NADA!" (Absolutely Nothing!). Not even 5% of what the Hierarchy should have learned!
The Catholic faithful need to
The Catholic faithful need to force the retirement of their bishops and take back their own parishes. Holy Joe Ratzinger and his gang will proceed to stem the tide of this crisis any way they can short of removing the bishops and themselves from power in the Church.
If the laity wait, this crisis continues. Action has to come from the bottom and start moving up through the ranks. You can't wait for Rome to act. It never will act because the cast of culprits in this drama is too big. For B16 to remove bishops at this late date would be a clear act of admission the People of God were right all along, and there would be a catastrophe of catastrophes--the laity are seen by non-Catholics as having their say. The people are in fact at long last in charge.
Totalitarian Benny would never want to give the impression to the world that the laity have any authority whatsoever. For him this is the power struggle of all power struggles in his priestly career and he's determined not to lose the battle.
Don't kid yourself. The
Don't kid yourself. The deniers run the church, from above or from under. They are the eternal Vatican. Everyone else is a tourist.
Not until Bishop Vasa and
Not until Bishop Vasa and others who have refused to accept and implement the minimalistic Dallas document are brought into line will I believe that the reformers are winning. Not until Bishop Finn is forced to resign or is relieved of his see will I believe that reform is in the wind. After all, either a grand jury or a prosecutor found "probable cause" that Bishop Finn had committed a crime. If a bishop was convinced that there is "probable cause" that a priest had abused a child, would not that bishop act, if only to avoid the media frenzy when the truth eventually came out? We now are faced with the specter of a Vicar for Clergy in Philadelphia and a Bishop in Kansas City going on trial for violations not of canon law but of criminal law. I would wager that if a Curia employee were on trial for such crimes, their employment would have been terminated a long time ago. Why not the bishops and their vicars?
John, I am curious why Pope
John,
I am curious why Pope Benedict was not present for at least part of this event. It would have been a powerful symbol.
My other thoughts are that the institution is good at discipline but not good at understanding issues of personal power over others (e.g. the power of abusive priest over the young boy, young girl) and issues of human sexuality. The bishops continue to view human sexuality as genital activity rather than the all encompassing human way people relate to eachother.
I am an old professor. If I could have addressed the group at the venerable Gregorian I would have respectfully said: GENTLEMEN YOU NEED A LOT OF REMEDIAL EDUCATION.
John A Dick
Amen, Prof. Dick, AMEN. A
Amen, Prof. Dick, AMEN. A LOT of remedial education!
Amen, Prof. Dick, AMEN. A
Amen, Prof. Dick, AMEN. A LOT of remedial education!
Was Cardinal Law in
Was Cardinal Law in attendance? Cardinal Law should be sent back to Boston to answer for his inept handling of the Priest Pedophilia Scandal in Boston! That should be the first step toward the implementations of the Vatican's new, honest and truthful initiatives! Until Cardinal Law is made to answer for his gross, but purposeful, ineptitude, no one will ever be able to convince me that the Vatican and the Hierarchy are turning the corner on the Priest Pedophilia SCANDAL!
RIP VAN WINKLE'S CHURCH .....
RIP VAN WINKLE'S CHURCH ..... Nice try, John. The abuse crisis is at least 25 years old; not 10. In 1986, Tom Doyle gave his comprehensive abuse report to Levada, Law, Bevilacqua, et al, whom immediately buried it. Ratzinger covered-up a convicted pedophile over 30 years ago. Most of the time since, then he has played a key role in conducting the worldwide abuse cover-up orchestra from Rome.
If a few in Rome are now waking up, it is too little too late. Not even the pope's current contraceptive Trojan Horse effort to remove Obama as prosecutor-in-chief will make any difference.
The prosecutors, bankruptcy judges and victims' lawyers will be the impetus for ending the current unChristian papal/curial dictatorship. Catholics can then return the Church to the caring and consensual structure that Jesus intended and early Christians supported. All new bishops will soon once again be selected by local Catholics.
While the Roman Rip Van Winkles were sleeping, the international rule of law has been moving forward. Not even popes are above the law, as today's Vatican is beginning to learn the hard way.
re: "Nice try, John. The
re: "Nice try, John. The abuse crisis is at least 25 years old; not 10. In 1986..."
Lest we forget the warnings issued during the late 40's and 50's IN WRITING by Servant of the Paraclete founder Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Fitzgerald_%28priest%29
I'll bet there's more than one Curial higher-arch still kicking himself in the CAPPA MAGNA today for not coughing up the 50K Fitzgerald requested to start his island treatment center for clerical pedohpiles! One can only wonder where the church might be today if he had...
In the late 1960's I knew
In the late 1960's I knew "Fr. Fitz," the founder of the Paracletes. He must have really pissed off members of the Hierarchy, because the Paraclete Center was taken away from his control and he was transferred "for making too much noise," to the Newman Center on the University of New Mexico's Campus, where he could do no harm and where he wasn't able to "BRING SCANDAL to the Holy Roman Catholic Church!" May God rest his soul!
"The difference between 10
"The difference between 10 years ago and today, however, is that the deniers have been largely driven underground, and it's the reformers who set the tone." While that may be entirely true, John, couldn't we have said much the same thing when the Second Vatican Council came to an end in 1965? It seemed then that the reformers were in control while the opposition went "underground." And now, sadly in the eyes of so many of us, we have the "reform of the reform."
I was not impressed with what
I was not impressed with what transpired at this conference. In fact, I was further discouraged by what I learned during this past week. That "the church moves slowly" is not acceptable and a "cop-out". I am thinking about the clerics who claim to have been "called" to follow Christ. The message and words of Jesus are absolutely crystal clear and powerful as it relates to hurting children. I would think that knowing a millstone being wrapped around their necks and thrown into the sea would move the so called leaders of the CHURCH to move faster and to finally "get it" !! What is so difficult about understanding a suffering child. Men who can't understand children should NOT be priests. Unless you become "like a child" you can't enter the kingdom of heaven. As a mental health worker I understand all too well why some men who are priests don't "get it". However, those priests and bishops and lay people who do "get it" had better learn to speak out, stop enabling the hierarchy and get the church to move more quickly to take the words of Jesus to heart.
Bishops' acountbility should
Bishops' acountbility should not be limited to questions comcerning child abuse, but to any other realm of Church life. Their abuse of power is a constant feature. In fact, who can sue a bishop following a simple church process?
This symposium reminds me on
This symposium reminds me on a joke which is told in several versions. One of them: Caused by a big inundation, a man sits on the roof of his flooded house. Three bypassing boats offer to rescue him, but he refuses and says that God will rescue him. Finally the water rises and the man dies. He comes to heaven and asks God why he did not rescue him. God says: "I have sent you some boats, why did you not use this opportunity?" Now, the rescuing boats for the church in view of the sexual abuse crisis are to abandon power and celibacy, but the church is unwilling to use them.
"With regard to greater
"With regard to greater episcopal accountability, it seems safe to say that rhetorical corner has been turned."
John, you are way more optimistic than most. I can not deny the Vatican has made some steps in the right direction, but this is a journey that still has no end in sight.
"It's not about deconstructing the hierarchical nature of the church, abrogating the Vatican's status as a sovereign state, eliminating celibacy, ordaining women or rewriting Catholic sexual morality; those things were never in the cards."
If these are the ground rules then the road to meaningful reform on priest/child sex abuse looks very long indeed. And even if there is meaningful reform, it can easily be undone. Benedict XVI will 85 years old in a few weeks. We will have a new pope in the not so distant future. More than a few NCR readers thought certain reforms were here to stay back in the 1970's. With the election of John Paul II, the reforms of Vatican II were not only halted, they have largely been eliminated. If the next pope is another denier, this grim story will play out for another century.
". . . the fault lines in the
". . . the fault lines in the Vatican a decade ago broke down in terms of these sorts of debates: . . ."
As I peruse your list, the absence of the question of accountability for bishops leaped out at me, suggesting it wasn't even among the things dividing the reformers and deniers. I suppose one should be grateful it now is apparently part of the conversation.
But that's a small, small step, and one only recently taken. Just last November, the Catholic church argued before the British High Court that the church -- including especially its bishops -- should not be held accountable for the actions of its priests. As Thomas Doyle noted here at NCR,
"In arguing this case, the church's representatives did what was expected: They painted an erroneous picture of the priest's stature in the diocese that would be laughable were the potential consequences not so disastrous.
Fortunately for the claimant and for the countless others who have suffered "sexual molestation at the hands of Catholic clerics, MacDuff [the presiding justice] saw beyond the superficial to the heart of the matter. He bypassed the intentionally misleading and false canonical legalism to the main issue, which is power, given and misused in violation of all that the Catholic church stands for."
http://ncronline.org/blogs/examining-crisis/courts-ruling-church-respons...
As Father Doyle noted in a separate post in December, the accountability issue remains the stumbling block:
"Every time Pope Benedict XVI says something about the never-ending sex abuse nightmare, he inches closer and closer to the dark reality that has been like a black cloud over the church for more than two decades. And although he is slowly moving forward, he always stops short of the most important and no doubt for him, the most painful issue: the complicity of the world's cardinals and bishops. . . ."
http://ncronline.org/blogs/examining-crisis/what-victims-hear-popes-talk...
As long as the pope continues to stop short, this will not go away. The secular world will not settle for non-accountability, and the more the pope continues to stop short of addressing this, the worse the church will suffer as a result.
Peter, I agree with you
Peter,
I agree with you completely, BUT isn't the biggest problem for local dioceses (as well as the Vatican) that if they or their bishops admit to a criminal cover-up, they will be even more decimated by a deluge of lawsuits? After all it is against the law to aid and abet the sexual abuse of children. I think this is the church's catch-22.
The notion of "ecclesial
The notion of "ecclesial accountability" is an oxymoron, and a very cruel and misleading one at that.
The facts of the so-called "summit" as reported in NCR suggest that the Roman church has not turned a corner in its handling of the clergy sex abuse crisis, and that in spite of the "brave, courageous and bold" talk of Cardinal Levada and Msgr. Scicluna, the leadership has absolutely no intention of being accountable to the flock.
They have no real concern for
They have no real concern for rupturing any form of paternal relationships.
Take for example the children of their charges born into the world totally abandoned, or live a life of subefuge with part time fathers.
Has your church learned
Has your church learned nothing from its own experience in this sorry matter, not to mention the secular world's mess at Penn State University and now in the L.A. school system? Mandatory reporting is essential. No church, no public school system or university should be allowed to handle this entirely in house.
All allegations of criminality must be reported to civil authorities, period! Let the local prosecutor determine the credibility of the alleged victim(s) and the strength of the criminal case, if any. Moreover, the alleged victim (or parent) cannot have a veto power over the reporting, for that simply allows a potential pervert to remain at large.
"I am curious why Pope
"I am curious why Pope Benedict was not present for at least part of this event."
The 3 Cardinals themselves you have mentioned Mr. Allen, have some heavy baggage to own up to...
You want them to really get
You want them to really get religion about fighting abuse?
* Cut off their funding.
* No more Peter's Pence contributions.
* No more "gifts" when bishops make their Bow & Scrape (oops, ad limina) visits to the Big Kahuna.
" . . . groundbreaking abuse
" . . . groundbreaking abuse prevention and detection programs . . ." ???
No evidence of efficacy, a whole lot of bureaucracy, a sinful waste of time and money . . . and all Protecting God's Children does is give the bishops a reason to say they tried.
Why are we pew folk having to pay? We're not the ones who should be required to take a course! Especially when they are so poorly-conceived, poorly-presented, and one-size-fits all.
"...especially places where
"...especially places where the sexual abuse crisis has not yet exploded, in the hope that for once, church leaders can defuse the bomb before it goes off."
Coming soon to a continent near you:
http://globalnation.inquirer.net/25081/archbishop-tagle-sex-abuse-a-glob...
http://www.fabc.org/offices/oc/Documents/Celibacy-seminar%20May-2012.pdf
Memo to FABC:
Varying cultural definition of what constitutes "CHILD ABUSE" is no excuse.
Regardless of geography, the THREE main questions remain the same:
1) WHAT did you KNOW?
2) WHEN did you know about it?
3) WHAT did you DO about it?
I like Joseph Ratzinger's
I like Joseph Ratzinger's idea about a smaller church for the future. At least then the Vatican won't be able to influence the world in any significant way.
It is so hard to believe that
It is so hard to believe that things will change! If they do, it will be because of factors outside the Church. It was thanks to the Boston Globe that the lid came off the sex scandal. Can anyone imagine a Catholic Paper breaking such a story! The so called."Catholic Press" is under the Bishop of the place.
Was the Church interested in getting our reaction to its new translation of the Mass. It was simply delivered. All the Bishops love it and the "Catholic Press" love it (as if they had a choice). Even now, to whom can we turn to express our thoughts on this. Do the experts who delivered this to the peope care. I don't think so!
To know what is going on in the Church one must turn to secular publications.
I think there is a lot of fear in the Church today. Everyone is looking
over thier shoulder to see who is keeping an eye on them. God help the
lay folk if they get too uppity, the Pastor who deviates in the liturgy,
the Bishop who failes to enforce the Code of Cannor Law is every detail.
May God send us another Pope John XXIII.
Thank you
The Church will not cease to
The Church will not cease to be attacked by those for whom sexual abuse was never the issue in the first place. However, it is true that the momentum has shifted. You will see less inclination to accept any sexual aberrations, including homosexuality. Remember that the way reform in the Church often operates is what you saw at Trent.
Well said, Father!
Well said, Father!
The only people for whom
The only people for whom "child abuse is not the issue" are the Bishops and priests. In their minds Child rape is insignificant campared to the power of the Church and its leaders. Remember they do not see child rape as intrinsically evil. A women who takes birth control to treat ovianian cysts is evil. A bishop who transfers a known pedophile to a new parish and new victims is merely unfortunate.
AL this discussion is good,
AL this discussion is good, but maybe too little too late. But still I consider it a "band-aid" solution for a terminal patient.
Our Church has to renew itself from the inside to be able to deal with the reality of the 21st century. The Church still acts like we are in the medieval ages. The reforms that John XXIII began in the 60s were short lived and never were followed up by his successors. John Paul II and Benedict XIV have buried any possibility of reform. We need a Church who respond to the 21st Century needs, and we have to put aside centuries of traditions who never were intended by Our Lord and are not based in the Gospels, but Catholics are supposed to follow like dogmas.
The Church has to worry more for the "real Church" who are the people of God and not for the image of an institution and a hierarchy. That is what happened with the abuse of children. The image of the Church and their clergy was more important for the bishops and the Vatican than the hundreds of thousands of kids who were being abuse for decades. I never heard Jesus talking about protecting the image of the Church but he was clear about the protection of his children.
The essential Christian faith
The essential Christian faith and Jesus' words will never die away, but the archaic structures which which the Faith has been encrusted are firmly based in culture, social conventions, an antiquated hierarchy desperately trying to make itself heard and relevant today. Those structures do and are changing. A cursory knowledge of the Church's history illustrates this all too clearly. Even if the canonists and theologians fail to and continued to spin their webs of deceit and attempt to mask the obvious decline everwhere in Catholicism and Christendom itself.
Polity, spirituality, and theology have always changed. It's Benedict's superstructure desperately trying to preserve priestly control with him at the pinnacle which remains hopelessly mired in the past. They're exposed to a skeptical press and a skeptical laity. Like Dracula, they can't afford to come into the daylight' lest the purifying rays of sunlight and exposure to a radiation of inquiry and skepticism weaken their influence and render them mere dry bones. Representing now an ossified past. Presently, just a bunch of old relics trying to come back to life.
Like a snake shedding its old skin, a new Church begins to come out from under the rocks. New forms of being faithful followers of Christ are being built by educated and enlightened men and women without a professional class of career priests and bishops in place to guard the new flame or the sacred mysteries into which at one time only the officiants of the old priestcraft could enter. Where no lay person could even so much as touch the sacred vessels, or no man or woman could pass over the threshold of the inner sanctum. Too many of today's clergy still view themselves as thee lone guardians of the entrance ways to churcly flim flam and mumbo jumbo. Like the destruction of the Second Temple, this clerical wreckage will be dispersed. The armies of charging jeweled pointed hats, birettas, lace cottas, and cappa magnas are rapidly being dispursed and being carried back on their own shields.
The career priesthood firmly rooted in a 9th to the 12th century mindset is having to come to grips with a world it doesn't understand and can no longer control. It's weapons for mesmerizing the faithful worked in ages past, but are now viewed by many as too old fashioned and too ineffective to fight today's warriors. Their message of centralized, authoritarian control is being rejected by even the most devout faithful, as well as the Church's most ardent critics.
Yeah, and the "religion" they
Yeah, and the "religion" they get is just as phony as the religion they've been peddling ever since the Council of Nicaea when the Roman Emperor, Constantine, the so-called Great, first mixed the terrorizing potion of church and state.
Can anyone tell me what the
Can anyone tell me what the pope was doing for four days that was more important than the biggest crisis that has affected the Church since the Reformation? Does he consider himself above the fray? Does he have nothing to learn from the so-called experts addressing the symposium? Does he think his attendance would be a distraction? Someone needs to help me here, I'm running out of excuses.....
Too little, too late. They
Too little, too late. They recalled their ambassador from Ireland, didn't they? No.I don't believe that the Vatican has any credibility on this issue.
Rome enjoys no moral or other
Rome enjoys no moral or other credibility.
Long, past time to turn the Vatican upside down and shake the literal and proverbial hell out of it!!!
Long past time.
Every time I read some of
Every time I read some of these remarks, I marvel that I keep hearing the same old song. Living currently in a country that is traditionally and historically Catholic, and as a mental health professional, I offered my experience with sexual abuse of children to the local bishop by way of a letter. I never received a response. I offered my professional experience and services (free) to several of the local priests, pastors and teachers at the local seminary. I heard with my own ears that "we don't have that problem here." Trying to keep myself from falling off my chair and hitting the floor hard, I also behaved and didn't laugh out loud at this incredulous response. I give up. I don't believe that change will happen any time soon.
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