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CRISIS IN THE CHURCH (60:00) Monday April 29- 8:00 pm ET LIVE
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Posted on 04/25/2002 2:19:22 PM PDT by Notwithstanding
1) The sexual abuse of minors is rightly considered a crime by society and is an appalling sin in the eyes of God, above all when it is perpetrated by priests and religious whose vocation is to help persons to lead holy lives before God and men.
2) There is a need to convey to the victims and their families a profound sense of solidarity and to provide appropriate assistance in recovering faith and receiving pastoral care.
3) Even if the cases of true pedophilia on the part of priests and religious are few, all the participants recognized the gravity of the problem. In the meeting, the quantitative terms of the problem were discussed, since the statistics are not very clear in this regard. Attention was drawn to the fact that almost all the cases involved adolescents and therefore were not cases of true pedophilia.
4) Together with the fact that a link between celibacy and pedophilia cannot be scientifically maintained, the meeting reaffirmed the value of priestly celibacy as a gift of God to the Church.
5) Given the doctrinal issues underlying the deplorable behavior in question, certain lines of response have been proposed:
a) the Pastors of the Church need clearly to promote the correct moral teaching of the Church and publicly to reprimand individuals who spread dissent and groups which advance ambiguous approaches to pastoral care;
b) a new and serious Apostolic Visitation of seminaries and other institutes of formation must be made without delay, with particular emphasis on the need for fidelity to the Church’s teaching, especially in the area of morality, and the need for a deeper study of the criteria of suitability of candidates to the priesthood.
c) it would be fitting for the Bishops of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to ask the faithful to join them in observing a national day of prayer and penance, in reparation for the offenses perpetrated and in prayer to God for the conversion of sinners and the reconciliation of victims.
6) All the participants have seen this time as a call to a greater fidelity to the mystery of the Church. Consequently they see the present time as a moment of grace. While recognizing that practical criteria of conduct are indispensable and urgently needed, we cannot underestimate, in the words of the Holy Father, "the power of Christian conversion, that radical decision to turn away from sin and back to God, which reaches the depths of a person’s soul and can work extraordinary change". At the same time, as His Holiness also stated, "People need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young. They must know that Bishops and priests are totally committed to the fullness of Catholic truth on matters of sexual morality, a truth as essential to the renewal of the priesthood and the episcopate as it is to the renewal of marriage and family life".
1. We acknowledge that we have failed all to often to adhere to the morality of the Church's teaching and to civil law in dealing with sexual misconduct of those who have taken the vows of our Church to serve Christ in the priesthood. We acknowledge that we must make whole all who have been victims of our failure as good shephards of the flock. We know that it is painful, but it is the Lord's will.
2. We will be far more vigilent in screening applicants to the priesthood, and will vigorously inquire whether by deed they have hewed to their vows, and that they have a sufficient emotional maturity to withstand the demands which we place upon them. We acknowledge that this may well exacerbate a shortage of priests, but we not not let that deflect us.
3. We will ponder and honestly in an open debate discuss the fitness of those with a homosexual orientation to be priests, with a view to minimizing the risk of trangressions which place the Church in both moral and legal danger.
4. We will endeavor to involve the laity in our deliberations, and vow that such delibertions will be open and candid, and open for public inspection. We denounce any actions which suggest any secretive or a defensive attitude on our part.
5. We are committed to personal accountability, and expect those in authority to prayfully ponder their culpability for the straits in which the Church finds itself, and will respect and honor those that chose to voluntarily resign their offices to the extent that in all candor they find themselves wanting. And we expect candor and honestly from those in whom we have placed such authority. To the extent we find them wanting in this regard, we will not shy from taking such actions as may be warranted.
6. We welcome constructive criticism, and will respond to it in good spirit, promptly and with candor, with the view that our foremost task is to regain the trust of those whose trust we have abused and violated due to our own moral inadequacies. We are but human, but as humans we are capable of redemption, and will endeavor to achieve it, with vigor, persistance, and humility, in hopes that the Lord will be generous and forgiving of our sins.
I know the cadences from a theological standpoint suck. I simply lack the skill here to manipulate the verbiage to my satisfaction.
You would think that the liberal press (and othes who are not so liberal but think the Church is so heavy handed) would enjoy the deference the pope still gives to the local bishops and the national bishop's conference. After all, that is their beloved "collegiality" (codeword for liberals for democracy in the church) at play.
The mortal danger is that once the idea is established that sexual abuse is a problem to be "managed", it becomes a regrettable but unavoidable cost of doing business -- like paying for fire insurance or pest control. This is the way -- not that the cardinals want it that way, but because they don't understand the dynamic at work -- that pederasty becomes normalised. The fatal mistake is to treat the symptom only, without addressing the disease. Deviant priests do not appear out of thin air. They come from corrupt seminaries, and ultimately from an ignorant, uncatechised laity that's been on its own, wandering in the desert for 40 years. The problem of sexual deviancy and blackmail are just one aspect of this systemic problem. The cardinals seem to think they're fighting a trash fire, completely clueless that behind their back the entire forest is ablaze.
I thought the American statement was, to use the English slang, "wet." Very wet.
Or even more to the point "if anyone causes one of these little ones who believes in Me to sin, I tell you truly that it would be better for him if he had a millstone tied about his neck and hurled into the sea."
I'm a diehard Calvinist, but I don't think it takes Christian rocket science to see that this passage certainly applies to the children who are destined to be saved... God sends angels to help those who will inherit salvation. There will be one hell of a payback (literally) to some of these molesters. "Whatever you do unto them, you do unto Me." I'd think that the Pope would not have just been within his rights, but absolutely obligated by Scripture, to equal any Southern Baptist preacher's fire and brimstone in this matter.
My apologies, I painted with rather a broad brush. I was thinking of the more "fundamentalist" type of Protestant and not of the more "mainstream" type. Sorry.
SD
I understand your point, but are not the catechising of the laity and the preperation of seminary students "procedures"?
SD
Let Rome appoint the laity to the ministry and solicit its ongoing advice on matters AmChurch and act on that advice.
The meeting with JP II seems to indicate that there is an AMERICAN CHURCH that should have its own procedures on the priesthood. Why aren't there universal Vatican standards that the Pope could have spelled out for compliance?
This tacit admission by Rome that the American Church should be different continues to leave the door open for the "Am-Church", or any other XX-Church to go its own way whenever.
Is this ONE CHURCH or what?
Evil will continue - will not be eliminated - unless it has been proven to be notorious [intentionally ambiguous - rape at high-noon in a downtown intersection] serial [twice, three times, ten times - who picks the threshold], predatory, sexual abuse of minors [looks like young men and women, seminarians or novices are still open season].
Business as usual, until the lawsuits dry up the wealth of the Church. I was wrong. I thought the loss of wealth would be THE motivator to burn out the nest of evil in our Church.
And parishioners should do penance for the sins of their priests? To think I had it backasswards all this time. I always thought it was the priests who had a vocation to do penance for the sins of their parishioners. Can't do one while enjoying the other.
Finally, my take on the "....reprimand individuals who spread dissent and groups which advance ambiguous approaches to pastoral care..." conclusion is to establish an offensive to gag public outrage at the evil in the Church, and a campaign to eliminate religious practices attempting to protect and continue pre-Second Vatican Council traditions.
Because the type of language sacrifices clarity for exactitude. It is a level above simple statements, which can be ambiguous. Rather than saying "you've got a problem with homosexuals" it instead says "people must know that priests are committed to the full truth of catholic sexual morality." That says things about homosexuality, and more.
What is is the point of having a Pope and his concommitant authority if there ISN'T a time to lay down the law and force changes to implemented?
He just did.
SD
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CRISIS IN THE CHURCH (60:00) Monday April 29- 8:00 pm ET LIVE
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