Posted on 04/26/2002 1:17:57 AM PDT by My Identity
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:07:43 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
HE STATEMENTS issued yesterday at the Vatican provided incomplete advice to US bishops as they devise a policy regarding sexually abusive priests. These were very much documents written within the clerical culture, and they failed to address the crisis of confidence among the laity that is most acutely expressed in the Boston Archdiocese.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Are so many of them "compromised" by past personal scandals, that a "one strike you're out" policy might put them at risk, so they can't chance such a policy?
I think this sums it up. The old boys are still doing nothing but protecting their own. I was extremely disapppointed in the results of this meeting - although, alas, I was not at all surprised.
Massachusetts for years has had a "failure to report law" by which teachers, social workers, medical workers have to report even suspected abuse of children. I am amazed that this hasn't come up...wouldn't anyone in these categories have to report, even if the connection is through the churches, or church help agencies, or private schools? What about lay people in these Catholic environments? Do they have to report?
The purpose of this law was to protect children, not just children who aren't in the care of the church (I thought).
Who was it who said "My friends I hold close. My enemies I hold even closer"? Isolation benefits molesters.
Sorry about being ambiguous. I should say, isolation helps molesters hide. Scrutiny benefits them by discouraging them from evil acts.
I have heard that two historical popes (centuries ago) had committed acts of sexual perversion, and others have been incredibly cruel. I don't mean this to be hateful towards Catholics, or towards the current Roman Catholic leadership, but just to be discussing a matter of world history. Whatever the Catholic Church may theoretically be by theology (and as a Protestant I go on record as disagreeing with its theology), its high leadership has apparently seen immense amouts of slime and sleaze. If it could happen once, it could happen again; all good people need to be on guard.
The difference is more than "a strike". One strike means don't even think about it, don't consider it, don't put yourself in potentially unexplainable situations with children. Two strikes is kind of mellow...first time you're caught, we'll talk, tell you that wasn't nice, and if we catch you again (because one has to assume these perverts aren't caught every time they abuse children) you're out.
And of course, it all depends on how you define a strike... (I really don't see any moral clarity in the statements coming out of that conference)
Typical statement by the Boston Glob. The laity there have no need of repentance??????? Suggest they might start by getting rid of Kennedy and Barney Frank. They put the perverts in power and keep them there.
The laity has no right to rule. The Catholic Church is not a democracy. Christ instituted the sacred priesthood to do that. The media, particularly the Boston Glob, and the laity have no right to tell the Church how it should handle this problem before us. We do not need a return to Trusteeism.
The Godfather
The laity have no need of repentance IN THIS SCANDAL. They've done nothing but stand with their mouths open, aghast at the scandalous cover-ups that have gone on and are still going on (the latest NAMBLA files suddenly "discovered" on Shanley).
The laity have plenty of things to be repentant over, but covering-up priestly pederasty is not among them.
Even if that turns out to be the only way to keep it from getting up to its ears in slime?
Nothing about the priesthood imparts to a man the ability to know how to manage a large organization like the present Catholic diocese.
If the bishops don't get some outside advice on handling these pederasts (there's still some evidence that the bishops don't want to institute a "zero tolerance" policy), the lawsuits will continue to multiply and states will institute some requirements of their own, whether the bishops like it or not.
Most of our chancery offices have been taken over by the laity already and the bishops have let them. That accounts for many of the problems in today's Church here in America.
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