Posted on 04/17/2008 10:00:29 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Pope Benedict XVI chided Americans for a moral breakdown he said had fueled the church's child sex abuse scandal, ahead of an open-air mass before tens of thousands here Thursday. Gates opened at Washington's new sports stadium before dawn so that an expected 48,000 people could trickle through stringent security measures to attend the mass at 10:00 am (1400 GMT).
Benedict received a rapturous White House welcome Wednesday and met privately with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office, before addressing the pedophile priest scandal that has rocked the US church in a speech to US Catholic bishops.
Thousands of people gathered at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception late Wednesday whooped, cheered and whistled when the Popemobile pulled up outside.
The basilica's bells pealed, and inside the largest Catholic church in North America, people had no qualms about climbing onto pews to catch a glimpse as Benedict entered.
In a speech delivered after evening prayer, the pontiff berated the bishops for their poor handling of a scandal surrounding sexual abuse of children in the church.
But he urged efforts "to address the sin of abuse within the wider context of sexual mores" as well as a reassessment of "the values underpinning society."
"What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?" the pontiff said on the first full day of his US visit.
"Children deserve to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships. They should be spared the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent today."
Describing clerics who sexually abuse children as "gravely immoral," the octogenarian pope warned that the scourge of pedophilia "is found not only in your dioceses but in every sector of society."
"It calls for a determined, collective response," he said, but did not outline any firm action that the Vatican intended to take to purge the church of pedophile priests.
The US Catholic church plunged into its worst crisis in 200 years in 2002 when the archbishop of Boston confessed he had protected a priest who had sexually abused young members of his church -- opening a floodgate of thousands of similar abuse cases around the country dating back decades.
Benedict angered victim support groups by praising the bishops' efforts to heal the wounds from the scandal.
"Five years ago, US bishops begrudgingly adopted some minimal promises on paper. There's no evidence to suggest they've had any real impact," Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), told AFP.
"The pope continues to stand behind his men - the bishops who conceal clergy sex crimes," said another SNAP member, Joelle Casteix.
"What the pope should be doing is assuring Catholics worldwide that any bishop who shields a predator will lose his job and the priests will be swiftly defrocked," she said.
Earlier Wednesday, on the first papal visit to the White House in three decades, the Roman Catholic pontiff urged Bush to prefer diplomacy to war as a way of resolving conflicts.
But aside from mentioning the plight of Iraqi Christians, he skirted mention of the Iraq war, on which the Bush administration and Vatican do not see eye to eye.
Benedict and Bush expressed concern for Christians in war-torn Iraq, agreed on the need to create a Palestinian state, and said Lebanon must be free of undue foreign influence, according to a joint statement.
The pope urged the United States to treat immigrants humanely, and called on Americans to spurn materialism and shun secularism.
On the second day of his US trip -- his 81st birthday -- the pope drew raves more befitting a rock star than the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
Under a cloudless sky, Bush welcomed Benedict with a 21-gun salute, a famed soprano singing a soaring "Lord's Prayer," and an earnest "peace be with you."
Some 13,500 people packed the mansion's South Lawn waving little Vatican and US flags, as cries of "viva il Papa!" (long live the pope) mingled with the two national anthems and two choruses of "happy birthday" for the pontiff.
Thursday, after saying mass at Nationals' Stadium, Benedict plans to meet with Jewish representatives after an inter-faith gathering at the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington.
That, and a planned stop at a New York synagogue, appear aimed at quelling Jewish unhappiness over the revival for the Latin Rite mass of the 16th century "Prayer for Jews" in which Catholics pray for the conversion of Jews.
Law is not under indictment, nor is there a warrant for his arrest, nor AFAIK does anyone currently want to depose him (yet again). How is he being "protected from the American justice system" when the American justice system has no current interest in him?
That's a misleading title. The first paragraph says that he stated that it fueled the scandal. Cause and fuel are two different things, IMO.
The headline is an outright lie. Before people start criticizing the Pope, read the transcript of the entire speech. Then you have the right to discuss what you think of his intentions. His comments on the plane, and during this speech, and his private, unpublicized meeting today with actual abuse victims, all have shown in word and deed he puts clear responsibility where it is due.
In his speech most of the words about the pedophilia situation were extremely harsh on the bishops, and as soon as I heard the Pope make this ONE statement about the larger problems in society, I thought “Oh no, this is the line the MSM will pull out of context.”
Sure enough, they have, but I would not expect Freepers to be so gullible and jump to conclusions based on a biased and quite limited interpretation of a very lengthy and complex address.
Yes, he did not use the word “homosexual” but referred to the importance of candidates for the priesthood being sound, healthy men, and mentioned priestly formation rooted in values and faith. He’s also said it’s better to have fewer but better priests. He also addressed this issue in 2005.
The bishops know exactly what the Pope’s talking about, he probably prefers not to create a media frenzy by saying “homosexuals should not be priests” but he has implied that in various ways in different contexts. A few courageous bishops themselves also tried to get focus on that particular problem at their last US Conference.
“Aw, everybody does it”
The general breakdown in morals and manners is quite evident if one is old enough to remember what things were like in 1960. Thousands of priests and dozens of bishops went along with the demands of the culture. They just wanted to be relevant, to be tolerant, to be :good ole Joes” rather than shepards. When the morale of any elite corps cracks, then one gets this sort of stuff.
If Pope Benedict is truly sincere in his desire to heal the pain of the perverted priests' victims, he will defrock Bernard Law for starters. Does anyone believe this will happen?
Also, keep in mind that many or most of these priest abuses took place in the '50s. The "breakdown" of society which we now refer to did not begin in that decade.
Regardless of what has occurred in the general population, I wish the Pope wouldn't compare that to the abuses of priests.
These men, according to the Church, received a calling to dedicate their lives to God and, thereby, they took on the responsibility of leading others, adults and children, to live good and holy lives.
According to the words of the Pope, we now can view priests as not much different than the average good person who gives his/her life to caring for children, teaching them right from wrong, and always being there for them.
The laity who take care of their parents, are there for their friends, support their families, help out in many other ways, do not have to put anyone in the Church hierarchy on a higher plateau than that of themselves.
People have been willing to talk about sex abuse as well as other offenses by priests forever. What was unusual was the failure of the Church to apply its own discipline. As for the “American criminal justice system,” surely you know that prosecutors have a spotty reputation for handing cases of sexual abuse, because so many occur inside of families. That same “criminal justice system” that has just decriminalized sodomy, which is the crime of which 80% of the priestly perps were guilty . A system that seldom prosecutes gays for having sex with underage kids is supposed to prosecute gay priests?
The Cardinal didn’t bugger anyone, and his handling of the abuse cases received the right response: he was fired from his job ,or kicked upstairs if you like. What your want to do is to punish the Cardinal for poor judgement, not a crime under church law, nor really under civil law. Many a public school has sent many a school teacher on his merry way for committing actions like those ascribed to these priests. Usually it was because the parents did not want the matter to be brought to light. As in many a rape case, the victim would be injured by a prosecution by having to take the stand. Very often the school board was not made aware, and certainly the local prosecutor did not want to get involved. Out of sight, out of mind. What the Cardinal did wrong was to behave no better than a secular institution.
How dare you!”
Stop. The Church handled the sexual abuse scandal very poorly. As well, the sick priests involved were the responsibility of the Church. Yes, morals of our society have become worse over the years...But, that being said, do not try and confuse those issues of poor society morals with the sick and twisted priests which in many instances the Church was aware of, and pretty much turned a blind eye. On one hand he is correct that coinciding with the sexual abuse by the priests was a down turn in morals among society, but that is not the issue he should be addressing...He sides step same by discussing society problems as a whole, and not what transpired in the Church, waht caused it, what they are doing to ensure it does not happen again, and what they are doing to help those harmed.
This is an unpleasant issue the Church to this day has tried to side step, many reasons relating to civil legal issues, but none the less...for you to believe that people who acknowledge the Church's position in playing down these issues as detractors to the pontiff is ridiculous. I suppose if something had happened to your child at the hands of a priest maybe you would think otherwise.
The industry I am in has afforded and provided me information on many instances of the abuse these twisted individuals participated in to the degradation and assault of the children they were to shepard. The Church, per the advice of counsel for the most part, has had to keep silent as to the assaults, the cover ups. Any public statements could and would hurt any defenses to same. Unfortunately, it destroys the Church's image and standing among it's flock. As well, for the Pontiff to try and confuse social issues with this ugly predator priest problem is ridiculous and off point. He almost would have been better off saying nothing and just meesting with those affected directly privately.
Jmouse007 and others:
I am thankful to Pope Benedict whose writings and clear teachings are refreshing in this world of as he puts it, one that embraces “a dictatorship of relativism.” Furthermore, I appreciate the Pope for meeting with those who have been the victims of “sexual abuse” by Priests. I pray that this might be the first step toward the beginning of healing.
Still, I have some concerns as to why is it that sexual abuse of minors seems to be portrayed in the TV media as a “Catholic Problem”. I would like to point out a recent article from the Protesant/Evangelical magazine Christianity Today. The online version of the article posted on 4/10/2008 states:
“In the last three years, an average of 23 new articles each day have appeared in secular media sources revealing sexual abuse allegations arising in Protestant churches in the United States. Protestant denominations have been tempted to call sexual abuse a “Catholic Problem”; this simply is not true. within the past eight years, verdicts, judgments, or settlements exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars have been levied against Protestant churches for sexual abuse allegations arising from children participating in minstry programs.”
So, from my calculation, that is 25,185 allegations of sexual abuse of minors that happened in Protestant churches. In addition, there have been stories of huge abuse in American public schools, although I don’t have the figures to cite.
So again I have some questions, 1) Why has the TV media not covered this story, 2) Why is it that non-Catholics use the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church, which is a serious moral failure on the part of the individual priests who perpetrated this crimes, and the Seminaries who ordained these men and Bishops who failed to address the warning signs.
I think part of the reason is the secular-media, driven by the spirit of the evil one (Satan), knows who in the end is the real McCoy is, and that is the Catholic Church. It is an institution that goes back to antiquity and is one that can’t be forced by the secular-media’s agenda to conform to the spirit of the age in terms of abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and sexual morality, etc.
In summary, as Pope Benedict alluded to, there is a dictatorship of relativism in U.S. culture that has contributed to a break down of absolutes in terms of what is right and what is wrong, which in turn is impacting the moral foundation of all America, not just Catholics and the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, the TV media (CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC) does not seem to care about sexual abuse of minors. I will exclude Fox News as Bill O’Reily on his show has helped hold judges, who don’t sentence individuals who sexual abuse minors, feet to the fire on this issue. Finally, again, I am grateful that Pope Benedict is addressing it, but it seems there are some here who will never give the man credit. It makes one wonder, if many use the failings of the Church at the human level (Catholic Theology views the Church as the Body of Christ, so just as Christ had a Divine and human nature, the Church is a visible sign of a spiritual Communion of God and Humanity), to justify not wanting to confront the moral failures in their own lives, rather than seeking reconciliation and conversion to Christ.
God Bless and Regards
bumpus ad summum
The gay subculture in the American seminaries, the breakdown of American society. They both have the same root cause and we all know what it is.
The pope is correct.
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