Posted on 01/07/2008 5:55:59 AM PST by tdunbar
Pope Benedict XVI has instructed Roman Catholics to pray “in perpetuity” to cleanse the Church of paedophile clergy. All dioceses, parishes, monasteries, convents and seminaries will be expected to organise continuous daily prayers to express penitence and to purify the clergy.
Vatican officials said that every parish or institution should designate a person or group each day to conduct continuous prayers for the Church to rid itself of the scandal of sexual abuse by clergy. Alternatively, churches in the same diocese could share the duty. Prayer would take place in one parish for 24 hours, then move to another.
Vatican watchers said that there was no known precedent for global prayer on a specific issue of this kind. There are about one billion Roman Catholics worldwide.
The instruction was sent to bishops by Cardinal Cláudio Hummes of Brazil, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy. He told L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that he was acting in the Pope’s name. The Pope wanted Catholics to pray for the “mercy of God for the victims of the grave situations caused by the moral and sexual conduct of a very small part of the clergy”, he said....
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Picture a bishop giving a deposition over one of these cases and when asked what steps he took when some inapropriate things were brought to his attention and just what steps he took to remedy the situation. A call to prayer over the matter just falls a bit short in the court of law.
I grant you the need for processes, procedures and policies; however, you agree that, in the Church, those need to be grounded in prayer, right?
Also, note this is not some ephemeral call to prayer but has precise stipulations, worldwide.
There have been plenty of plans put into place to follow all allegations against any clergy who have been implicated in abuse of any type. The processes are in place. Prior to this, we all would have assumed common sense would prevail, but the old boy’s club mentality prevailed, unfortunately.
So, we don’t need any more rules, as they are already there. Pope Benedict is correct. Prayer improves the lives of all who pray; intense prayer as a movement toward change is very powerful. Having parish prayers for cleansing of the church is a good thing. Calling upon God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will help cleanse the church from this sinful behavior.
Part of what the Pope is likely addressing is that the root of this crime (indeed all crime) lies a moral issue. Frankly, prayer works for moral issues, especially considering that some of those requested to pray are those either directly involved in the offense, or aware of offenses in their areas of responsibility, and thereby still responsible.
Also, it serves as a good reminder to the Lord’s command to pray continually (1 Thess 5:17).
Our legal system and civil damages system will destroy the catholic church in the United States if we work on God's timeframe and not the trial attorney's timeframe.
Good for Benedict.
While this seems a big religious news story, there is as yet very little on the web about it yet. Given opinions regarding the lack of reliability of the UK Times religious reporting, I assume there’s a good bit of activity trying to find out more, e.g. official documents.
I hope it’s true. One of the reasons I didn’t search harder for a Catholic congregation when I was called to Christ was my perception of the corruption of the American Catholic church. I think it needs a major focus and a major effort to end that corruption, especially where systems have been created to protect the non-celibate gay clergy. I think for non-Christians it doesn’t matter much whether a priest is pedophiliac or a minister is caught with a man and cocaine. Both make Christians a laughing stock in the world because the world by and large thinks “Christian” not Catholic or Protestant, hard as that is for denominationally proud people to understand.
Can’t the pope just order them to stop?
For me, it’s not corruption of the Church but corruption in the Church
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Good point. The unfortunate thing is that the American heirarchy has protected wrong-doers so that cuts against your distinction. The American church needs to get some serious lay person activity to make the heirarchy reform, in my opinion. That’s the downside to the Catholic church structure. The lay people may be right but what can they do to influence the bishops and cardinals and monsigneurs and so forth? In a Presbyterian Elder / Deacon elected system they can vote so the lay people have a direct voice. Doesn’t happen often that it’s contested but it could be. The Catholic system is a “good emporer” system. The Pope appoints the Cardinals who help the pope, with the various bodies of the church, make the bishops and monsigneurs, and then the Cardinals vote to make the next Pope. It’s a stable system, but if a Pope goes off the rails in his appointments the church suffers for the next few generations or more. Conversely if he makes good appointments the church benefits for the next few generations.
Just babbling, but I’m interested in how you combine the activity and the involvement of the lay people in the Protestant churches with the stability of the Catholic system.
Interesting that he uses prayer when the tools that God would likely use to answer such a prayer would be ACTION by people like him.
The call to continuous prayer will, if put in practice, while both force the diocesian clergy to implement concrete steps and also, given the extent of the requirement, will necessitate very substantial lay participation. Over time, the lay faithful have significant influence within the Catholic Church; however, it does take time.
Actually, I think this is very good, because it’s very specific. Bishops (most of them, at least, leaving aside those few who are corrupt themselves) don’t really set out to cover things up. They just want the whole thing to go away peacefully, and in addition, many of them are really gullible and seriously believe that just a little “counseling” from them or a therapist will set their erring clergy right. Naturally, the offenders, most of whom are highly manipulative types, are great at giving His Excellency a soulful look and uttering protestations to the effect that they were just misunderstood, it will never happen again, etc.
A lot of bishops are very weak and unfortunately, unless they’re evil themselves, don’t understand how evil some people can be, even those wearing a collar. I think maybe this prayer will make them take it a little more seriously, on a cosmic scale, so to speak.
Bishops routinely flout the so-called “Dallas Accords,” since naturally, they believe it may apply to other bishops and other situations, but never to them and their clergy. If even that agreement didn’t work, then perhaps the only thing left to try is prayer. (And removal of a few bishops, but that is NEVER going to happen, unfortunately.)
You are right. Just because a few priests disobeyed, does not make the entire Church corrupt.
Just as if a few teachers moleseted children, it does not mean that all teachers are molesters.
If it were true — then we would have a major scandal in the public schools. But the lamestream will continue to hide it.
Lord, please give your Holy Spirit with special grace and healing to those who have been abused.
Parents....
I’m confused about something. Can a priest that commits this kind of egregious act, still function as a priest? Are the sacrements he gives and the masses, still valid even though he has comitted such a heinous crime?
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