Pope Benedict XVI summoned the Irish Cardinal and bishops to Rome to drag them over the coals of hell fire on the child abuse issue.A Vatican statement told us:
“The Holy Father observed that the sexual abuse of children and young people is not only a heinous crime, but also a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image.”
Actually it’s a heinous crime and a grave sin regardless of a person’s age.
For 99.9 per cent of the population of the world the Pope was stating the bleeding obvious regardless of a person’s race or creed.
What needs to be explained is why one Irish Catholic priest abused over 100 children.
Why this is not only an Irish problem but one that is to be found in all countries with a large number of Catholic clergy.
Why the Catholic Church has been a refuge for paedophiles and whilst paedophiles felt safe in the bosom of the Church of Rome.
It is all very well to know that Pope Benedict can talk the talk – the church has been doing that for over 2,000 years.
What the world –and especially the victims - is waiting to see is if the Catholic Church can walk the walk.
I’d say at present it’s at the crawling stage!
5 comments:
There can be no excuse for the abuse of children by priests.They are probably the worst kind of paedophiles,respected members of the church who use their position to not just to abuse kids but to put the fear of God in them and convince them that they will not be believed,or will go to hell.
The church has behaved in the most abominable way,turning a multitude of blind eyes over decades.Everyone involved should be very publicly prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including those who were aware and did nothing.
As they say in Spanish: "Las cosas de palacio van despacio." Loosely translated to "Things at the palace move slowly." That particular Vatican palace moves much more slowly than most.
The power of the church diminishes just as slowly, but does diminish. Now let's see if the secular authorities can do something about those bastard priests.
You're right, Sancho, it's not just an Irish problem, however. I should know, I was brought up in an abominably Catholic country during a Fascist dictatorship, where the clergy was rampant, too.
The weakness of the flesh, to use yet another priestly euphemism, knows nothing of dog collars and soutanes. Another excellent reason to abolish 'celibate' clergy.
Let's face it, this is not solely down to a Pope who was given this title as a gong for services rendered. If these men really were christian these paedophiles would have been ousted and prosecuted at the time of their crime instead of being shuffled round the globe to continue destroying lives and
any faith in the Church.What is happening in the Thirld world where children have even less of a voice? Can we ever expect them to do their duty- the Vatican is nothing but a self serving financial entity,with some kindly
souls on the ground who try their best and have to screw funds out of their sometimes poverty and disaster struck congregations when the Vatican and it´s museum are stuffed to bursting with fabulous treasures and artifacts; the Vatican household is run like the most royal of palaces, men draped in gold and silver regalia and trooped out everytime the Pope comes out for a "do", fabulous cars, this is show business, not Christianity.What are they trying to protect with all this ? Isn´t Christianity supposed to encourage a simple compassionate attitude to life and others ? Try doing business with the Church and see how you fare!
I was present at a ceremony at the Vatican only a few weeks ago, I was
impressed and sickened all at the same time- is it just because they know they' ve been rumbled and they are in danger of losing valuable revenue never mind our poor catholic souls that they have just begun to acknowledge that a goodly number of their priests are monsters?
Just to add two comments to my blog. I was brought up as a Catholic hence spent much time with priests and was taught by nuns and brothers. Certainly I have never been confronted with paedophilia or any sexual impropriety whatsoever.
Although I am a lapsed Catholic I do not believe the immoral and criminal behaviour of members of that church’s clergy reflects on religion per se. I believe we all have an inbuilt spirituality and we channel that as we feel fit through organized religion or other expressions of our basic beliefs. We do that regardless of paedophile priests, mad Mullahs or whoever who are ancillary and not central to our faith.
So the church is producing a lot of hot again so as to appear to be doing something about its torrid track record !
I think the age old saying is "Todays news is tomorrow´s chip wrappings".(how do it translate to e-news?)
I believe that this area of human life is one which will never stop regardless of our views on education, moral standards or ways of dealing with the crime.
The human mind is such that it can be manipulated towards virtually anything if it packaged correctly, whether or not it is legal or just everyday life.
It is easy to highlight the more well known organisations and tar all concerned with the same brush. There are the same cultures within the general society which we do not see, and we are always so suprised to find when we have believed that we were living amongst so called friendly neighbours.
Having said that, I do not condone this lowest of low crimes whether it is committed under the cloak of any religious organisation or any other body.
There are pros and cons as to how to tackle child abuse, from the soflty softly approach of trying to understand it or the eye for an eye attitude.
Although everyone should be treated the same, I believe that using any position of authority or trust to commit any crime must be dealt with the maximum punishment possible.
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