BBC: Pope orders talks on US sex scandals

BBC.com/Americas ^ | 15/04/02

[history_matters]

Pope orders talks on US sex scandals

The Pope has spoken out against "evil" abusers

Pope John Paul II has summoned leaders of the Roman Catholic church in the United States to the Vatican to discuss recent disclosures of sex scandals, which have rocked the church.

The Vatican says the meeting with American cardinals will probably take place next week.

Demonstrators have been calling for Archbishop Law to go

The Archbishops of New York and Boston - traditionally the two most important posts in the Catholic church in the US - have been under pressure to resign because of their alleged role in covering up cases of abuse involving priests.

The Archbishop of Milwaukee has also been accused of suppressing information about cases of alleged abuse.

The Catholic Church has also faced similar allegations in a number of other countries.

The Pope last month made his first public denunciation of guilty priests.

Time for action

Boston Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law, 70, has been at the epicentre of a scandal in which he is accused of knowing that a few priests in his archdiocese were serial child molesters, but he did not discipline them - he simply moved them from parish to parish where they preyed on new victims.

The affair is similar to problems in St Louis, Florida, California, Philadelphia and Detroit.

Our correspondent says it has severely undermined the credibility of the church and clearly the Vatican now believes it has to take action.

Cardinal Law did not turn up to mass at his cathedral on Sunday because there were protesters outside the cathedral and he thought they would disrupt the service.

Heavy criticism

Across the whole country, 3,000 priests face allegations of child abuse.

Archbishop Bernard Law: Under pressure

Cardinal Law has been heavily criticised since former priest John Geoghan was convicted of child molesting.

He has acknowledged that he transferred Geoghan to another parish despite knowing of sexual misconduct allegations against the now-defrocked Boston priest.

Geoghan is believed to have abused more than 100 people over a 20-year period.

The scandals are also a huge financial burden for the church. They have settled out of court in many instances and the cost of that has been more than $1bn.

There is talk that some archdioceses will be bankrupted by the scandals.

Commentators suspect that the Pope will have to get rid of a layer of the Catholic hierarchy, starting with Cardinal Law.

[B-Chan]

May your continual pity, O Lord, cleanse and defend Your Church;
and, because without you she cannot endure in safety,
may she ever be governed by Your bounty.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, world without end.
Amen.

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O glorious St. Michael,
guardian and defender of the Church of Jesus Christ,
come to the assistance of this Church,
against which the powers of hell are unchained,
guard with especial care her august Head,
and obtain that for him and for us the hour of triumph may speedily arrive.

O glorious Archangel St. Michael,
watch over us during life, defend us against the assaults of the demon,
assist us especially at the hour of death;
obtain for us a favorable judgment, and the happiness
of beholding God face to face for endless ages.
Amen.

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[ELS]

bump

[Romulus]

If we've learned anything from the past 40 years, I hope we've learned that faithful, orthodox Catholics must be heard from at this time, lest like Vatican II this latest initiative for reform be hijacked by innovators and subversives. We need to make our voices heard at the parochial, diocesan, and national levels, and in Rome.

[Gophack]

If we've learned anything from the past 40 years, I hope we've learned that faithful, orthodox Catholics must be heard from at this time, lest like Vatican II this latest initiative for reform be hijacked by innovators and subversives. We need to make our voices heard at the parochial, diocesan, and national levels, and in Rome.

YES! We need to write letters, respectful, identify ourselves as Catholic, praise God, and ask that the Vatican lead the initiative to clean house.

[jrherreid]

I guarentee you that the Latin Mass is the answer to every problem the Church has now.

Say what? I think not. The problem is that priests aren't assenting to Church teaching on sexuality.

[Domestic Church]

I think we'll see some resignations after next week. At least I HOPE. You hit on the nail! We have renewed HOPE by this Papal call up. We need to really kick up the prayer power for this though.

[Domestic Church]

Where do we write the letters? Ecclesia Dei?

[sinkspur]

The Pope has been speaking out against sexual sins of Priests for the past decade.

Can you find any specific references JP II has made to this scandal over the last decade?

Somebody said yesterday that he has been taking the American Church to task since 1983, but I don't remember him saying anything before last month.

One of the lone voices in the wilderness in the '80s was Andrew Greeley, who said on a Donahue show back then that priestly pederasty would become the "biggest scandal in Church history."

[AmishDude]

Question for Catholic freepers: When the Cardinals meet (this would refer more to, say, the meeting that will announce the next pope rather than this one) what language do they speak in? Latin? English? Italian?

[sinkspur]

I hope our Holy Father tells the Archbishops to reinstate the Tridentine Latin Mass at every parish in the USA and world.

I guarentee you that the Latin Mass is the answer to every problem the Church has now.

With all due respect, there is no basis in fact to support your contention.

Many of the priests (like Geoghan and Porter) were ordained or were in seminary BEFORE Vatican II.

This is a recruiting problem, not a liturgical problem.

[Gophack]

Somebody said yesterday that he has been taking the American Church to task since 1983, but I don't remember him saying anything before last month.

I believe is was 1993 and he was in America or the Americas when he condemned sexual sins in the priesthood. I can't remember where I read it, but it was here on FR. Someone posted an article from the time the Pope spoke up in reply to that he "just broke his silence" on this scandal.

Tonight I'll do a little research and see if I can find it. Maybe someone else has it handy.

[sinkspur]

Every Cardinal is provided a translator so that he can understand in his native language.

At a conclave, there are ceremonial proceedings in Latin that take place; other pronouncements would probably be made in Italian.

Even these old Cardinals wouldn't do very well in conversational Latin.

[marshmallow]

If the US bishops act true to form, they will listen politely while the Holy Father speaks, nod their heads, then go away and do whatever it was they intended to do in the first place.

Which is probably very little.

[Malcolm]

I guarentee you that the Latin Mass is the answer to every problem the [Catholic] Church has now

There is no hope for these people. Only a member of a cult would say something as ridiculous as the above and actually mean it.....

[Stingray51]

I'd like to see him get the American hierarchy in the same room, open the session with a prayer and then bring in the Swiss Guards to haul them off to retirement in a monastery. If he's going to fire a cardinal, all the better to do it in Rome and keep the guy locked up there so he can't go on Larry King Live the next day.

[Gophack]

I understand that you have major problems with some tenets of the Catholic Church, and I hope to use this opportunity to explain a little about the foundations of the Church and why we believe that the Church is the true Church as established by Jesus Christ in the gospels.

First, you assert that the authority the Catholic Church has, it gave to itself. I would argue that Jesus Christ gave the apostles the authority to teach the word of God:

Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Mt 28:18-20)

"Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." (Mt 10:40)

Do we agree that Jesus gave his disciples, the Apostles, the command to go out and spread the word of God, to "teach" the commandments? To share the "good news"? I think we do.

Catholics believe that Jesus made his Church on earth and put Peter, his apostle, as the head of the Church.

"And so I say to you, you are 'Rock', and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Mt 16:18-19)

"If he refuses to listen to them (two or three witnesses), tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector." (Mt 18:17)

Jesus distinctly gives Peter the command to tend to his flock, the people:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." He then said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." (Jesus) said to him, "Feed my sheep." (Jn 21:15-17)

Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the holy Spirit has appointed you overseers (episcopous), in which you tend the church of God that he acquired with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)

After St. Peter, the first Pope, there is a clear line of succession. Not all Pope's were good men; indeed, some Pope's led very sinful lives. But the church itself is holy: Jesus said there would be both good and bad members in the Church (John 6:70), and not all the members would go to heaven (Matt. 7:21–23). But it's important to note that not one iota of doctine has been changed: the bad Pope's had no role in saying that Christianity meant anything other than what it meant since the time of Christ.

I hope that you read why I wrote with an open heart, and think about it. I'm not trying to convert you, but to show you that the Catholic Church IS scripturally based, and that we hold fast TO scripture as the inspired word of God. That everything we do, and all our prayers, are directed to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity that all Christians -- Catholic and non-Catholic -- believe in.

God bless.

[jokar]

Bump

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Which brings up an interesting next point. What will be done then? Will this be taken to the next level? Will Rome threaten to defrock or excommunicate them? Will the liberal American bishops schism and start an "American Catholic Church"? I'm interested to hear what other Catholics think might happen.