Posted on 04/11/2019 8:30:25 AM PDT by marshmallow
The emeritus pope said a crisis in moral theology led the Church unable to defend itself against the social changes of the 1960s
In an essay published Thursday at CNA, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI offered his thoughts about the sex abuse crisis facing the Church. Benedict reviewed the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and examined its effects on priestly formation and life, before suggesting the Church’s proper response.
“Today, the accusation against God is, above all, about characterizing His Church as entirely bad, and thus dissuading us from it. The idea of a better Church, created by ourselves, is in fact a proposal of the devil, with which he wants to lead us away from the living God, through a deceitful logic by which we are too easily duped,” Benedict wrote in “The Church and the Scandal of sexual abuse,” published April 11.
“No, even today the Church is not just made up of bad fish and weeds. The Church of God also exists today, and today it is the very instrument through which God saves us.”
The emeritus pope’s essay was published simultaneously in German at Klerusblatt, in Italian at Corriere della Sera, and in English at Catholic News Agency and the National Catholic Register.
The former pope said the sex abuse crisis cannot be understood apart from its wider social context, noting that “in the 1960s an egregious event occurred … the previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely, and a new normalcy arose.”
“This was in many ways a very difficult time … the extensive collapse of the next generation of priests in those years and the very high number of laicizations were a consequence of all these developments.”
Concurrently but independently, “Catholic moral theology suffered a collapse that rendered the Church defenseless against these changes in......
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
Sounds un-senile and un-exhausted as heck.
I don’t believe the BS about his reasons for going away and letting the gay commie illegal alien-loving ursurper to barge in.
I want Ratzinger back.
While I respect Benedict, sexual abuse did not start as a result of the 1960s Sexual Revolution. It was occurring prior to that. The Church needs to clean up its act on this issue, period. Report abusers to the police and “fire” them. Anyone priest caught having sex with an adult - whether with a man or woman - needs to be sanctioned and, if they don’t stop, “fired.”
Me too
Agree and agree!!
I’m wondering if this piece was “cleared” by TeamFrancis before publication.
He doesn't claim it did.
What you said!
“in the 1960s an egregious event occurred … the previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely, and a new normalcy arose.”
in other words: “it’s society’s fault” ... the EXACT same excuse ordinary, garden variety criminals use all the time ...
Benedict finally turned to what ought to be done: “Only obedience and love for our Lord Jesus Christ can point the way.”
“The Lord has initiated a narrative of love with us and wants to subsume all creation in it.
Mal 1:2 “I have always loved you,” says the LORD. But you retort, “Really? How have You loved us?” And the LORD replies, “This is how I showed My love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob,
Mal 1:3 but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.”
This is the only verse where God directly says he loves us.
What God hears is interesting and I think He hears correctly. “Oh Really, how have you loved us?” You can almost hear the dripping sarcasm, the indirect message, “go love some one else” this is too hard, it doesn’t look like love to us.
Note that God defines love here. One of the best definitions of love that I have found. Everytime you see that word “love”, you can substitute the word “choose”. It will get you past that worldly definition of love.
Being loved (chosen) by God is not an easy situation. Is our response any different? Go love some one else...………
Now if we love (choose) God, what does that mean? Every decision is choosing His will vs the world. How do we know what His will is? Going to take a lot of Bible reading and guidence by the Holy Spirit.
And that then leads to the big question. Has God chosen you? How do we know?
For a guy who is not he Pope, he sure acts like a Pope.
sexual abuse did not start as a result of the 1960s Sexual Revolution. It was occurring prior to that.
It was so bad at one time that God had to give a special law. We are just headed to the normal worldly situation.
Deu 23:17 “No Israelite, whether man or woman, may become a temple prostitute.
Focus on the third part for his "proper response", and then tell us what you object to.
He said it was.
You should know better than to try steering threads, G. LOL
..the "convenience" of wink wink nod nod at fornication/adultery/porn has resulted in us "allowing" and "accepting" homosexuality and thus, the gays innudated our seminaries....
once you accept and allow one thing, all things are accepted and allowed....
Vat 2 and the 60's just propelled it into the stratosphere....
Because there are several possibilities regarding the production of this piece.
At the one extreme, as some in the blogosphere have suggested, this was written by TeamFrancis who then demanded Benedict simply sign it. The second possibility is that Benedict may have actually written a draft which was then submitted to Francis and/or the CDF for approval which implies revisions, corrections etc. If so, how many revisions and to what extent was the final document altered from Benedict's original?
The third possibility is that Francis suggested changes but Benedict ignored them and published his thoughts without any changes.
In other words, is this entirely Benedict's work or is this some sort of corporate document and part of Francis' "occasionally we pretend to be Catholic" propaganda.
Benedict is not saying it is OK that normative standards of sexuality collapsed and a "new normalcy" arose. He calls it "egregious" (which means "extremely wrong") even in the tiny bit you quoted; and in the context of the whole article, he says that the sin and crime started with the replacement of God's norms with this false "new normalcy."
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