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PDF versionSex abuse crisis 'terrifying,' pope says
by John L Allen Jr on May. 11, 2010
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Lisbon, Portugal
En route to a May 11-14 visit to Portugal, Benedict XVI called the reality of the sexual abuse crisis “terrifying” and said that the greatest persecution of the church comes not from external attacks but from sin within the church.
Benedict's insistence that the real problem is internal seemed to distance the pope from other senior Vatican officials, who in recent weeks have blamed the media and other parties for unjust criticism of the Catholic church.
While those comments came in response to a question, the questions were submitted to the Vatican by reporters covering the trip several days in advance – suggesting that Benedict wanted to address the crisis and chose his words carefully, rather than being caught off guard.
Benedict also said that while forgiveness must be part of the church’s response to the crisis, that must not come at the expense of justice.
In total, the pope’s session with the press this morning lasted approximately 16 minutes. Beyond the sexual abuse crisis, Benedict also touched upon the relationship between secularism and religious faith as well as Europe's current economic turmoil.
The following is a rush transcript of Benedict’s comments aboard the papal plane. The pope spoke in Italian; what follows is an NCR translation.
What concerns and feelings do you bring with you regarding the situation of the church in Portugal? In the past it was a deeply Catholic country that carried the faith throughout the world, but now it’s undergoing profound secularization both in daily life and on the political/legal level. How can the faith be announced in a context which is indifferent, and sometimes hostile, to the church?
First of all, good morning to all of you. I hope we all have a good trip, despite the famous ash cloud which we’re above right now.
In terms of Portugal, first of all I have feelings of joy and gratitude for everything this country has done and is doing in the world and in history, the deep humanity of this people which I’ve been able to know through a visit and so many Portuguese friends. I would say it’s true that Portugal has been a great force for the Catholic faith, and it’s carried that faith in every part of the world … a courageous, intelligent, creative faith. It’s created great cultures, which we see in Brazil, in Portugal itself, but also the presence of the Portuguese spirit in Africa and Asia.
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On the other hand, this presence of secularism isn’t entirely new. The dialectic between secularism and faith in Portugal has a long history. By the seventeenth century, there was already a strong current of the Enlightenment … it’s enough to think of names such as Pombal. In these centuries, Portugal lived in this dialectic which today naturally has been radicalized and is reflected in all aspects. This seems to me a challenge, but also a great possibility. In these centuries, the dialectic among the Enlightenment, secularism and faith always had people who wanted to build bridges and to create a dialogue. Unfortunately, the dominant tendency was to see a contradiction and to see one as excluding the other. Today we can see this is false. We have to find a synthesis and be able to dialogue. In the multi-cultural situation we’re all in, it’s clear that a European culture which would be solely rationalist, which would not have any sense of the transcendent dimension, would not be in a position to dialogue with the other great cultures of humanity – all of which have this sense of the transcendent dimension, which is a dimension of the human person. To think that there’s a pure reason, even a historic reason, which exists entirely in itself, is an error, and we discover that more and more. It touches only a part of the human person expressed in a given historic situation, and is not reason as such. Reason as such is open to transcendence, and only in the meeting between transcendent reality, faith and history is human life fully realized.
I think the mission of Europe in this situation is to find a path to this dialogue, to integrate faith, rationality, and modernity in a single anthropological vision of the concrete human person and render that vision for the future of humanity.
For that reason, the presence of secularism is something normal, but a separation of cult from life, a separation of secularism from cult and faith, is anomalous and must be overcome. The great challenge is for the two to meet and to discover their true identity … this, as I said, is a mission for Europe and a human necessity in our time.
Thank you, Holy Father. Continuing on the theme of Europe, the economic crisis was recently aggravated in Europe, especially in Portugal. Some European leaders think the future of the EU is at risk. What lesson should we learn from this crisis, including at the ethical and moral level? What are the keys for consolidating the unity and cooperation of the European states in the future?
I would say that this economic crisis, with its moral component, is a case of application and making concrete what I said before: two separate cultural currents must meet, otherwise we won’t find the path to the future. Here, too, I believe there’s a false dualism. There’s an economic positivism that thinks it’s possible to realize itself without an ethical component … a market that regulates itself, by exclusively economic impulses and positivistic reason. Ethics would be something different, something extraneous. In reality, we can see today that a pure economic pragmatism which ignores the reality of the human person, who is inherently ethical, inevitably creates problems. This is a moment to recognize that ethics is not something exterior, but rather interior to all forms of rationality, including economic reason.
On the other hand, we also have to confess the Catholic-Christian faith often has been overly individualistic. It left the concrete things of the economy to the world, thinking only of individual salvation and religious acts, without recognizing that these things imply a global responsibility and a responsibility for the world. We have to enter into a concrete dialogue, as I tried to do in my encyclical Caritas in Veritate, and the whole tradition of the social teaching of the church moves in this sense … broadening the ethical aspect of the faith from the individual to a responsibility for the world.
The latest events in the market show that the ethical dimension is an interior part of economic life because the human person is one. It’s a matter of a healthy anthropology, and only in this way can we solve the problem, only in this way can Europe realize its mission.
Thank you. Now we look to Fatima, which will be the spiritual culmination of this trip. What meaning do the apparitions of Fatima have for us today? When you presented the Third Secret of Fatima in a press conference at the Vatican Press Office in June 2000, you were asked if the message of the secret could be extended beyond the assassination attempt against John Paul II to other sufferings of the popes. Could it also be extended to put the suffering of the church today in the context of that vision, including the sins of the sexual abuse of minors?
First of all, I want to express my joy to go to Fatima, to pray before the Madonna of Fatima, and to experience the presence of the faith there, where from the little ones a new force of the faith was born. It’s not limited to the little ones, but has a message for the whole world and all epochs of history, it illuminates this history. As I said in the presentation, there is a supernatural impulse which doesn’t come simply from someone’s imagination but from the supernatural reality of the Virgin Mary. That impulse enters into a subject, and is expressed according to the possibilities of the subject, who is determined by his or her historic situation. The supernatural impulse is translated, so to speak, according to the subject’s possibilities for imagining it and expressing it. In this expression formed by the subject, there are always hidden possibilities to go beyond, to go deeper. Only with time can we see all the depth which was, so to speak, dressed in this vision, which was possible for the concrete person.
With regard to this great vision of the suffering of the popes, beyond the circumstances of John Paul II, other realities are indicated which over time will develop and become clear. Thus it’s true that beyond the moment indicated in the vision, one speaks about and sees the necessity of suffering by the church. It’s focused on the person of the pope, but the pope stands for the church, and therefore sufferings of the church are announced. The church will always be suffering in various ways, up to the end of the world. The important point is that the message of Fatima in its substance is not addressed to particular situations, but a fundamental response: permanent conversion, penance, prayer, and the three cardinal virtues: faith, hope and charity. One sees there the true, fundamental response the church must give, which each of us individually must give, in this situation.
In terms of what we today can discover in this message, attacks against the pope or the church don’t come just from outside the church. The suffering of the church also comes from within the church, because sin exists in the church. This too has always been known, but today we see it in a really terrifying way. The greatest persecution of the church doesn’t come from enemies on the outside, but is born in sin within the church. The church thus has a deep need to re-learn penance, to accept purification, to learn on one hand forgiveness but also the necessity of justice. Forgiveness does not exclude justice. We have to re-learn the essentials: conversion, prayer, penance, and the theological virtues. That’s how we respond, and we can be realistic in expecting that evil will always launch attacks from within and from outside, but the forces of good are also always present, and finally the Lord is stronger than evil. The Madonna for us is the visible maternal guarantee that the will of God is always the last word in history.
[John Allen is NCR senior correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@ncronline.org.]
Benedict's Trip to Portugal
John Allen's recent reporting from Rome |
A certain percentage of
A certain percentage of sexual abusers is to be expected (but not tolerated)...what the hierarchy still doesn't "get" is that, even worse than the abuse itself, is the cover-up...until the hierarchy affirm their responsibility for blaming victims & keeping abusers in ministry, the scandal continues.
In addition, the constant fight against secularism...we have seen firsthand what a religion controlling politics can do...we want no part of it...we want the golden rule to inform politics...this is common to almost every religion. It seems as though the Catholic Church misses its power to be a major political player...the hierarchy at the very top misses its ability to have its own state and be a power player with its nose in every political ploy. Even Jesus said "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's"...the Church will not change people by heavyhanded political talk or actions...the Church must help each person take on the charge Jesus gave the Church and us: Love one another.
"even worse than the abuse
"even worse than the abuse itself"
As one who is haunted almost daily by my rape at the age of eight, I really don't want to what is "even worse than the abuse itself". Please think and know that statements like yours belittle an individual's experience of abuse.
People who kept the abuser in
People who kept the abuser in active ministry are just as guilty as the abusers...in fact, they are more guilty because they did not take care of those who were abused...thus abusing people twice...
A little example: if your father abused you & your mother knew did nothing, they are both guilty of abuse (morally AND under law)...you would at least have expected your mother to have protected you...so you were abused, in reality, by both parents.
This does not negate the original abuse, but makes it even more deeply painful.
Sorry if I didn't state that as clearly as I should have.
With respect I don't believe
With respect I don't believe that your theory is sound. If it was the coverup that was driving the mass media frenzy in substance, as opposed to an 'on the sleeve' outrage, then they would also be targetting mental health professionals and any other organisations that was similarly image conscious during that era and we would be reading about Kinsey's shortcomings on the front pages not just Catholic priests in the 60s. Most of the cover up was due to delegation to mental health professionals who then said the priests were cured. Bishops definitely should have treated it as a moral issue not a mental health issue. However the 'experts' involved in the 'cover up' were the mental health professionals so wouldn't they be a logical target? A smaller part of the problem appears to have been following the lead of general society and being image conscious. That was the norm of the era. Organisations buried their dirt. Now transparency is the norm. The Church demands transparency from its officials now. Noone is condemning other organisations for being image conscious decades ago but the Catholic Church is singled out. The final part of the problem was the attitude to pedophilia at the time. Society shifted to disgust to acceptance (Kinsey openly reported research on the orgasmic potential of infants and young children) to the serious alarm we face today. In the course of the scandal it has been revealed that even when reports were made to the police the police did nothing. Noone openly researches childrens sexuality these days and pedophiles don't feel at liberty to march on the streets for equal rights but the failure of Bishops to act from today's mindset is used to condemn them (while Kinsey gets honoured with a movie portraying him positively). I am not saying that they did the right thing or in any way defending those involved but that can't be the explanation or they wouldn't be singled out.
Wow! Finally, an expression
Wow! Finally, an expression of realism.
He did not name the "sin" he
He did not name the "sin" he was referring to. At best this is a way of talking about something without talking about it, thus maintaining maximum deniability. This man is without honor.
Truer words were never
Truer words were never spoken. This is a Great Pope!
Who is the great Pope you are
Who is the great Pope you are talking about? Surely not the present one.
No, a "Great Pope" would have
No, a "Great Pope" would have jumped on the seriousness of this sinful, greviously harmful behavior early on. He would have done whatever he had to do to get the prior pope to see the seriousness of the errors HE was making. A great pope would bite the bullet and clean house of those bishops, archbishops and cardinals who participated in the coverup that has gone on for so many years. And a great pope would recognize the reality of the role he had to play in the coverup when he ran that CDF and would do the right thing and step down. A great pope would not wait until the secular media has uncovered the extent of the filth before he finally admits the obvious that most everyone else already knew as if he was actually leading the charge.
B16 may be many things, but he is NOT a “Great Pope.”
The message seems to be
The message seems to be getting through and all the right answers given, but somehow I feel that there is no real desire to correct the structures within the church that have enabled the evils he speaks of to exist.
Are the theologians still harping on the Enlightenment? For God's sake (really) get over it. It happened - which is why most of us are here on this planet and why our forbears were not wiped out by disease or starvation on the grand scale of past centuries. But the message I hear from the Pope is "we will do penance and wipe away this guilt and this problem" - after which all will calm down, presumably and life can go back to the way it was in the good old days when the hierarchy were in charge and the laity knew their place.
Wonderful! Amen!
Wonderful! Amen!
"The fundamental problem is
"The fundamental problem is that of an unhealthy anthropology!" Big sentence for reflection. I love you Pope Ratzinger. Live long!!!
Good. You are forgiven, as
Good. You are forgiven, as Jesus' message teaches. But you need to take additional actions of accountability and responsibility. Now fall on your sword and get out. Take as many other perverts with you as you can. Let's reform.
Excommunication of pope-kings
Excommunication of pope-kings and priests and bishops is the automatic result of the horrific abuses AND being accessories to cover-ups; canon law requires that the perpetrators of these scandalous sins no longer be considered in communion with the organization. There is no legitimate pope; many bishops and priests are also dis-empowered for the very same reasons.
The words penance and justice
The words penance and justice made it into the same sentence in a commentary about the sexual abuse sins of some of our priests. That's a little move in the right direction. However, our ordained and lay Church leaders need to expand their comments and start reflecting out loud about "some Bishops' callous cover up of pedophile priests to presumably protect the good name of our Church. Boy, did that backfire! Our Holy Father (innocent until proven guilty) and most other Catholic Church leaders still cannot bring themselves to say: "pedophile priests" and "bishop cover-up" in the same sentence. We have a "pink elephant" in our Church's living room that most of our church leadership is still unwilling to speak about. That's predictable but still sad!
Barry Burke
Lakewood, NJ
Why is it that I take all
Why is it that I take all this with a grain of salt? Ah, yes, we have been lied to before, that's it. I do not trust any of this talk - I want to see results - meaning, defrock those bishops and priests, and if the pope did know of this and kept quiet, he should also go.
God knows that if we elected our priests from our own congregations, we could not do any worse than the hierarchical church has done.
I spoke about the clergy
I spoke about the clergy abuse issue with my pastor. He pointed out that, contrary to appearance, the Church is not hierarchical. He said that issues that arise are handled at the level most appropriate to that issue. Bishops, accordingly, would be responsible for dealing with predatory priests. Some dealt with them better than others. In the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., we have had solid leadership for 30 years, meaning the scandal has not bankrupted us, and the abuse incidents were minimized, to the benefit of children. Other dioceses were less fortunate, Boston for example. The real victims here are the children and families of abused children. We must keep the focus on them. Looking "up" a hierarchical ladder that does not exist will, ultimately, only frustrate one to no good end.
I have a sneaking feeling (or
I have a sneaking feeling (or at least a wishful feeling) that Benedict has become, in his heart, what he always was back in his Vatican II days, when he and Hans Kung were friends, way before he had become the office that he ruled: the CDF.
I would love to know what he was really like inside, behind that papal facade, behind the enforcing mask. Is he a good man or a conniving one? Is he a truly compassionate servant of God, or he is a calculating politician?
I want to believe that he is a good and truly compassionate servant of God who will act in the best interest of all people. I want to believe he will do everything he can to ferret out the evil and restore the church to one that lives by the Beatitudes, not Canon Law.
Am I being naive, or is there any ray of hope here?
He doesn't have to NAME the
He doesn't have to NAME the sin, we all know it. If you have to have it spelled out for you than you really are in the dark. It has been front page news for many years now.
Pope Benedict - live long, we need your guidance during these stressful times both within the church and outside it. I'm glad he said we have to forgive BUT we have to also render justice!
Why did it take the Vatican,
Why did it take the Vatican, and specifically Benedict, so long to speak this frankly and directly? It comes so late that his words sound more like spin and damage control concocted by a PR agency than real repentence. Finally he admits this is the greatest threat to the Church in this age. Why then has the institutional Church and the Vatican in particular, sanctioned so many whistle blowers and turned a deaf ear to so many victims over the years and right up to the present moment?
When Benedict talks about the "Church" doing penance, it would be better if he specified the hierarchy. They are the ones who have been covering up and fostering denial for eons. Let the bishops put on sack cloth and ashes. Let them dip into their own copious personal funds to help pay the the suits. Let Benedict and the bishops and curial cardinals apologize personally to each of the victims and whistle blowers who have been ignored and villified for so many years. Words trip too easily from Benedict's tongue. Let him start to accelerate the resignations of bishops who covered these crimes and intimidated victims. Benedict can start by stripping Cardinal Sodano of his privileges and red cape. He can also remove Cardinal Law from St Mary Majors and take away his $200,000 annual stipend. We could go on and on. The bottom line, back up the high rhetoric with actions that prove their sincerity.
Sounds very reasonable,
Sounds very reasonable, logical, and Godly advice you gave Lorenzo.
I have lost trust in our 'moral leaders'. If the Bible was followed, (1 Cor. 5 & 6) this would not have gone on for 100 years. Very simple. Love and follow God's ways and not man's. Teachers will be judged more strickly as James 3:1 states. God is cleaning house and everything hidden will be brought into the light. We will all be accountable for every creature (Heb. 4:13). Trust God and Jesus. Don't lose faith in them.
Lorenzo, good comments. If 1
Lorenzo, good comments.
If 1 Cor 5 & 6 were followed these men would have never allowed other men (and women) to sexually abuse children (up to 18 yr old) for 100 years.
What a shock. Most the
What a shock. Most the comments are negative. NCR people want nothing from this pope except to retire, go away, and die. They always have a "Yeah, but what about X" comment to make no matter what the pope does. They are nattering nabobs of negativity.
Nothing worse than angry old liberals.
When and if I hear that there
When and if I hear that there is serious Vatican consideration of enlarging the pool of priest candidates to women and married and entitled to be married men and women, I will believe that a pope recognizes the fundamental problem with perverts in the priesthood. Because the clergy does not care even slightly what the sheeple want by war of reform in the Church, I cannot imagine that this sordid new chapter in our history will end in a satisfactory manner.
This is truly a great Pope.
This is truly a great Pope. What some folks here must realise is: the Deposit of Faith is not changing. The Faith and Morals of the Church are not going to be changed so as to allow artificial contraception, abortion, divorce and remarriage, or homosexual acts. So stop beating this good Pope with the abuse of a minority of priests and dismal handling of same by inept Bishops. BXVI is part of the solution, NOT part of the problem. But, the answer to your question is: No. No condoms, not abortion. NO MEANS NO!
Why didn't someone, you,
Why didn't someone, you, perhaps, ask the Pope why he ran out on 800 Sister Superiors meeting in Rome? They were promised an audience with him and, instead, the Pope and Cardinal Rodé suddenly remembered something that they must do in Portugal and elsewhere, leaving the Sisters to fend for themselves.
Praying before a statue in Fatima does not replace the human contact, dialogue and understanding that could have taken place at the Superiors’ Conference.
Weren't you, John Allen, aware of what was going on?
Didn't anyone see this as a flagrant error on the Pope's and Cardinal Rodé's part?
I feel relived by these
I feel relived by these comments from Benedict XVI for the same reflect the content of two comments I previously submitted to NCR and the editors were kind enough to publish them. My deepest gratitude for them and for this excellent catholic journal and forum.
I had maintained that the real problem was from within the Church and the origin of the attacks to the Pope came from within. This is exactly what he is saying and implying.
I repeat my plea for us all to continue praying for the Pope and for the sanctification of the Church along the lines as drawn by the Benedict XVI. As I also noted, we are right now at the center and definition of this Pope's papacy and I clearly see that The Holy Spirit is indeed guiding him through this crisis.
Hello, It appeares that
Hello, It appeares that Benedict talks a lot about sin and forgiveness and justice. He still totally misses the mark. He is still in denial that he himself had a hand in all of this cover up. Who do you think was handeling issues of sexual abuse when Johon PaulII was in the vatican's holy seat?1
Continuing SPIN and more
Continuing SPIN and more empty damage control:
"...the questions were submitted to the Vatican by reporters covering the trip several days in advance – suggesting that Benedict wanted to address the crisis and chose his words carefully..."
The ONLY thing that Benedict and his minions find TERRIFYING is that people around the world are FED UP with his PAPAL BULL, and simply not gonna take it anymore. The EMPIRE is striking back and the hierarchy don't have what it takes MORALLY to defend themselves, their policies or their lies and conspiracies against the CHILDREN of the PEOPLE OF GOD!
Memo to current Pope:
Great Britain anxiously awaits you....I'd trade those ruby red Pradas in for a sensible pair of BK trainers if I were you.
Why did it take the Vatican,
Why did it take the Vatican, and specifically Benedict, so long to speak this frankly and directly? It comes so late that his words sound more like spin and damage control concocted by a PR agency than real repentence. Finally he admits this is the greatest threat to the Church in this age. Why then has the institutional Church and the Vatican in particular, sanctioned so many whistle blowers and turned a deaf ear to so many victims over the years and right up to the present moment?
When Benedict talks about the "Church" doing penance, it would be better if he specified the hierarchy. They are the ones who have been covering up and fostering denial for eons. Let the bishops put on sack cloth and ashes. Let them dip into their own copious personal funds to help pay the the suits. Let Benedict and the bishops and curial cardinals apologize personally to each of the victims and whistle blowers who have been ignored and villified for so many years. Words trip too easily from Benedict's tongue. Let him start to accelerate the resignations of bishops who covered these crimes and intimidated victims. Benedict can start by stripping Cardinal Sodano of his privileges and red cape. He can also remove Cardinal Law from St Mary Majors and take away his $200,000 annual stipend. We could go on and on. The bottom line, back up the high rhetoric with actions that prove their sincerity.
Did he mention that he is
Did he mention that he is part of the sin within the church by trying to cover it up and covering those who covered it up to save the honour of the church at the expence of innocent children? And did he show any remorse and penance for it? Or was it the sin within the church but outside him? He has nowhere to hid!
I believe the catholic church
I believe the catholic church is constituted by what is known as a hierarchy of truths. At the very pinnacle of the christian faith, the most exulted teaching of the church within the hierarchy of truths is a christian understanding of love, in its fullest expression and meaning. This is clearly explained and expounded most notably by Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verses 1 to 13. We have all read the Sermon on the Mount were Jesus said, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. We have the words of Jesus that tells us that the highest law is to love God with your whole heart and to love others like yourself. There is also a passage somewhere in the Bible that states simply that God is love. Incidently, love is also the very centre of the teaching of Judaism, Islam, and other major religions.
After love in this hierarchy of truths we have the doctrines of the church, its structures, policies, processes and disciplines. If love is the entire point of christianity, its goal and purpose of being, and it is located at its highest point in the hierarchy of truths, I believe it is love that should rule the church and all of its structures, policies, processes and disciplines. Therefore, the entire church, all of its magisterial authority and governing structure, is subservient to and at the service of love.
The catholic church does have a teaching authority, but it is not entirely located within the Vatican or the Pope. Each bishop within his own diocese has the authority to teach the gospel to his flock. The highest teaching authority within the catholic church is an ecumenical council comprising all of the bishops gathered together in one locality to debate, discuss, propose, and vote for their alternative points of view. The most recent example of an ecumenical council is the Second Vatican Council held in the early 1960s. Other hierarchical examples of authority are national and regional councils and gatherings of bishops. It is not spoken of much within our church, but scripture points to the authority of where two or three of us are together, Jesus is present among us in a mysterious fashion.
The point I want to make is yes the church has a particular authority on religious issues, it is localised via the ordinary of a diocese, its highest body is an ecumenical council, it is exercised in national and regional councils, and it is also located where two or three of us are together. But all of these structures and centres of authority are entirely subserviant to and have their existence, being, function, justification and purpose, soley for love.
If this is true, all of the church’s governing structures, which includes its doctrines, policies, processes, and disciplines, must be amenable to change in the light of changing circumstances through time. If the church is to remain relevant, life affirming, invigourating, and loving, it must also be subject to changing common understandings of care, fairness, justice, mutual concern, and modern verifiable knowledge. It should also seek to include contemporary notions of governance such as democracy, accountability and transparency, in order to contemporise its governing structures, and to affirm the dignity of every member of the laity, as the point, justification and purpose of its being.
What I and many other liberal catholics are seeking is the reformation of the church without a Reformation taking place. We love the church as any other person does and we have a point of view that has integrity and credibility. Whilst we acknowledge that those that differ to us in our beliefs are entitled to their beliefs, we beg to differ with our conservative bretheren who have the reins of the church. We are entitled to our point of view as free agents who have dignity within the modern world, and we are entitled to it due the inviolate nature of our human consciences.
Every church historian will acknowledge that the church, including its structures, doctrines, policies, processes and disciplines, has not remained the same throughout history, but has developed and evolved due to changes within the world that it has found itself in. The church has also changed as a result of changes in its theological thinking, which is also influenced by changes within its contemporary historical settings.
Anybody can point to a multitude of historical changes in church teaching on issues such as slavery, usory (lending practices), marriage, catholic social doctrine, the laws of war, the position of science and religion, the disgracful trial of Galileo, the burning of witches and heretics, the institution of the papacy, the change in the function and purpose of the Inquisition as it evolved to become the CDF, the growing centralisation of power within the papacy as a reaction to the Reformation, the modern respect for cultures and societies outside of western european cuture, the respect for other people who have different religions to our own, the teaching on conscience, the revision of teaching that all truth is contained within the catholic church, our modern respect and appreciation for Judaism, indulgences, the entire project of the Crusades, etc, etc.
If the church and its structures, doctrines, theologies, policies, processes and disciplines have evolved over time due to historical and social forces, then it is an incontrovertible fact that we have a church that is not set in stone. The church has changed throughout its history and there is no reason it cannot change again for contemporaneous reasons. We as a church need to ask what is essential to the catholic church and what can be reformed or discarded. If the entire purpose and the highest teaching of the catholic church is love, then all catholics are entitled to discuss and debate contemporaneous issues that have placed the church in a difficult and precarious position. To not do so would not only be an act of negligence and irresponsibility of the highest order, we would also be acting against the direct command to love by God, and we would be acting against our human consciences.
In the light of the sexual and physical abuse of women and children, that is plaguing the church throughout the world, what is needed is a church that is governed by democratic means. What is needed is a structure of democratic governance that accomodates transparency and accountablilty. Human nature cannot be trusted with total power and nobody can point to any governing structure in history that is both authoritarian and transparent. As the governance of the UK has altered throughout history, such as the beheading of Charles the First and the growing power of Parliament after his demise, the catholic world should be debating the merits of democratising the authority and administration of the Vatican as well as the entire church throughout the world. One important reason that the laity cannot stand idly by and not have a voice in the contemporaneous issues that affect the catholic world is that they have become far more educated than their good forbears ever were. This is an important reason for the laity to be more activist in their involvement in ecclesiatical issues.
As it is in the pubic interest for our nation-states to be governed by democratic parliments, has an independent judiciary, its citizens have charters of human rights, and its economies are broadly run by free enterprise with legislative controls in what is known as a mixed economy, it is also in the church’s interest to accept the need for change and move to more democratic governance that can accomodate transparency and accountability. I unashamedly propose that the catholic church should seek a parliament to mediate the values and input of an eduated laity, as a means for the church to make changes in doctrine and policy in a more timely manner, to accomodate transparency and accountablity in its governance and administration, and to become a more mature, contemporaneous, tolerant, and loving church.
If the church is to take its mission to evengelise the modern world seriously, it must contemporise itself or it will face irrelevancy and derision. It must democratise itself in order to respond to its structural problems in an acceptable and timely manner. It must be able to assert and practice that love is more important than any institution, discipline, or mode of governance. It is only after doing this will it be able to recruit more people to serve the church as priests and religious. It must become a reference point for human conscience and human rights throughout the modern world. It must become a champion of religious freedom both within itself and thoughout the modern world, in order that all catholics will hail it as a defender of human rights. It must seek to reform itself and become both the structural embodiment of God’s love and a conduit for all people seeking the Gospel.
Yes John Candido. There will
Yes John Candido. There will be strong opposition to any democratizing moves but Yes, there should be some sort of representation (especially of 50% of the human race currently un-represented) at the highest levels of the Vatican. It would mirror what I understand was more the situation in the earliest Church gatherings. My own hobby-horse (and this is not a joke) is to press the Vatican to include a woman or women as members of the Swiss Guard.
It is a terrible shame that
It is a terrible shame that the secular world does not listen to this man. Reading some of the comments made here, there are people who think that the Holy Father should fall on his sword and accept blame for the current scandal rocking the Church when he, in fact, has done more than many combined to acknowledge this scandal and begin routing it out. While John Paul II was a great Pope, I believe that God has given us the current Holy Father to help realign not only the Church but also the secular world to the realization that both must walk hand in hand. Secularism is definitely not the answer as we saw in the most recent financial crisis. It led to unchecked greed on the part of those who allowed themselves to believe that they were above accountability not only in law but in morals and ethics. When all is said and done, I believe Pope Benedict XVI will be looked upon in history as one of the Great Teachers of the Church, truly a great pope.
A misleading headling,
A misleading headling, perhaps?
It's not clear from the quote that the pope is using the word "terrifying" to refer to the sex abuse scandal. One could conclude, on the basis of the quote alone, that what he finds terrifying are the "attacks" on the pope (and Church) that come from within the Church. Perhaps the problem here is that the questioner introduced the sexual abuse crisis in the context of a vision about the suffering of the pope(s). Thus, the pope's response unfortunately intermingles two thematics that don't really belong together: one having to do with victimization, another having to do with repentance and justice. This may well be a case in which the press didn't help the pope to state clearly what he thinks about these matters. Or perhaps there's a translation problem with the text.
Yes I believe he is a good
Yes I believe he is a good Pope and perhaps a great Pope. He is obviously the best person for the job in dealing with the sex abuse scandal.
It was suggested that his appointment 40 years after Vatican II is not coincidental and that he might lead the Church forward after all the problems during those decades. Coinicidentally (?) the time frame was the same as the wandering in the wilderness of the Jews. Perhaps the suggestion is correct.
While he continues to advocate orthodox Christianity the media will continue to suggest that he is the problem even though he has done the most of any Pope to address the problem both before and after it became public. It was even incorrectly suggested that he might have personal involvement in a cover up.
http://catholicanchor.org/wordpress/?p=601
Curiously groups with a higher proportion of pedophiles and at least an equal problem of cover up by officials are ignored by the media. Perhaps that is because they are teachers who stereotypically don't generally subscribe to Christian orthodoxy in relation to ethical beliefs. Indeed stereotypically they are the opposite. That might explain why the media haven't exactly gone crazy about teachers.
http://www.newoxfordreview.org/article.jsp?did=1005-clifford
"I witnessed this while at the AP and kept my mouth shut. At my age and a retread, I was lucky to have a job. Now I am free to speak. If you want, do your own search on the Net. As far back as December 1998, Education Week was reporting on "Passing the Trash," recounting how school districts freed sexual predators "to hunt again." Education World followed a year later..."
Readers Digest also did a piece but major newspapers didn't even report it let alone rehash it constantly or dig back 50 years.
Instead it looks like the media are taking advice from Goebells in order to discredit the Pope because he isn't liberal enough for their liking in spite of his track history.
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/how_the_nazis_engineered_a_paed...
In spite of the insipid actions of certain Bishops decades ago no Catholic publically supports any child molestors. Contrast this with Hollywood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdQiQfxvJ8s
http://tizona.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/the-indefensibility-of-defending-...
Ironically however the Catholic Church gets the bad press for the evils of the past.
Perhaps I am too cynical. Perhaps it isn't the ethical teachings hated by the liberal media. Perhaps it is the long history of this type of problem broadly speaking and the fact that many Catholics accept it.
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=26637
John Allen's been riding the
John Allen's been riding the papal plane too long; has lost much of his valuable Objectivity it seems.
Is it terrifying because the
Is it terrifying because the abuse became public?
Sex abuse now become one of
Sex abuse now become one of the most terrifying problem in all over the country.
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