Posted on 06/11/2010 7:24:18 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI on Friday begged for forgiveness for the paedophile priest scandals rocking the Roman Catholic in his clearest apology yet for the scourge.
At a mass with some 15,000 priests marking the end of the Roman Catholic Church's Year for Priests, the pontiff pledged to "do everything possible" to stop the cases.
"And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light, particularly the abuse of the little ones," Benedict said in a sun-drenched St Peter's Square.
"We ... insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again," he said before the white-clad priests from around the world.
"In admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey," Benedict vowed.
An activist with a US-based support group for victims of predator priests rejected the apology as "disappointing and dangerous."
"He spoke about seminary formation and begging survivors for forgiveness," said Joelle Casteix of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. "That does nothing to keep kids safe right now," she told AFP.
SNAP demands a "zero toleranace policy to ensure that anyone who abuses a child or covers up for that abuse is immediately turned over to secular authorities," Casteix said.
Paedophile priest scandals and allegations of high-level cover-ups have surged again since last year and rocked the Catholic church in Europe and the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
"We ... insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again," he said before the white-clad priests from around the world.
"In admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey," Benedict vowed.
For comparison, see this article: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2532443/posts
“We ... insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again,”
So, let me get this straight, the representative of God here on earth begs forgiveness from people? I thought he was infallible.
Defrock Cardinal Law and then ask for forgiveness.
Yep, and that is the difference between how Protestants handle a situation and the leadership of catholics....Protestants remove the offenders from leadership...done deal.
Not in every single little thing he does.
Not always the case. There have been threads on here about that.
The lamestream media always jumps on the negative, don’t they? And others fallow?
When have all the Protestant ministers or teachers who have sexually abused children ever PUBLICLY asked for forgiveness?
Give the Catholic Church credit!
This Protestant appreciates your apology, believes your sincerity, and will continue to pray for the Church.
Not necessarily — depends on which Protestants you’re talking about — I don’t see Gene Robinson or the European Lutherans being defrocked. And I don’t see Benny Hinn being booted out, or Joyce Meyers for her views.
Good for him. Glad to see some responsibility being taken.
The greatest tragedy here is that this behavior reflects not only on the priests involved, the Catholic heirarchy, or the Catholic Church ... but on Christ and His followers (Catholic and non-Catholic alike).
As much as we on FR like to highlight the differences ... the secular world does not distinguish between a Catholic and a Baptist. We are all Christians, and, as such, our behavior and the behavior of Christian leadership reflects on Christ and His church (in all denominations).
There are anti-Christians throughout the world who will endlessly seize on this opportunity to malign Christ ... and it is OUR fault for giving them the opening to do so.
SnakeDoc
You wrote:
“I thought he was infallible.”
He is. He just isn’t impeccable. Perhaps you should learn the difference between the two terms.
Clearly a hit piece against the Roman Catholic Church. < sarc>
“As much as we on FR like to highlight the differences ... the secular world does not distinguish between a Catholic and a Baptist. We are all Christians, and, as such, our behavior and the behavior of Christian leadership reflects on Christ and His church (in all denominations).”
Nailhead post.
“So, let me get this straight, the representative of God here on earth begs forgiveness from people? I thought he was infallible.”
He’s no more or less infallible than you or I.
When have all the Protestant ministers or teachers who have sexually abused children ever PUBLICLY asked for forgiveness?
Give the Catholic Church credit!
I don’t see all the Priests who abused children asking forgiveness. I do give the pope credit for this though, it’s hard to humble one self and ones’ organization to beg forgiveness. Good Christians will grant it.
vanilla swirl:
Perhaps you don’t understand the meaning of the word infallible. Infallible has nothing to do with impeccability, i.e. incapable of sin or moral fault in this context. Infalliblity relates to the Bishop of Rome’s acting not in his person as Joseph Ratizinger, but as the sucessor of St. Peter and only when intending to speak on matters related to doctrine.
So if the Pope feels that the Church did not do enough in keeping out men with serious character flaws from the priesthood and some Bishops did not do the proper thing worried more about their own reputation, rather than address the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, then he is doing the theologically correct thing, asking for forgiveness which only proves that Popes, Bishops just like everyone else sin.
This does not negate the authority of the Church to speak infallibly on faith and morals. For example, if some Catholic theologian makes the claim that Christ never himself condemned abortion in the Gospels, nor for that matter did any of the NT epistles, and the Pope and the entire College of Cardinals reiterates that abortion is a sin and that it an infallible teaching of the Church, the fact that some Cardinals sined in their role as Shephards does not now mean that the teaching on abortion is false nor does it negate the Pope’s authority to speak as such.
pax et bonum
As for the Lutherans...in Europe...well that's their issue for their countries and people to determine I suppose. But on the hole in the US they do have to step down...
Unfortunately once they do step down and their church does not accept their leadership back...there is no laws stopping them from opening another following and church....Jim Baker and Haggard come to mind...but they were not received back into their church.
Still its is pretty much known now the catholic church has hidden and moved around the offenders for years...it is good to see the pope and all others trying to weed this out but they have to take those priests out of the leadership entirely and better...no contact with children period.
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