Posted on 03/15/2010 2:48:41 PM PDT by NYer
.- In an article titled "The rigor of Benedict XVI against the filth in the Church," Bishop Giuseppe Versaldi of Alessandria, Italy defended the "rigor" of the Holy Father in fighting sexual abuse within the Church. It is "ungenerous," he wrote, to deny the "open and decided battle" he and the Church are leading against these crimes.
In Sunday's edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the bishop wrote that some clarifications are needed regarding the sexual abuses that have been coming to light in recent days. He began by emphasizing the Church's "wholehearted condemnation of these serious crimes that disgust the conscience of anyone."
When these crimes involve people with vested roles in the Church, he added, "the scandal becomes even graver and more detestable.”
"Rightly, the Church does not intend to tolerate any uncertainty as to the condemnation of the crime and the removal from the ministry of whomever turns out to be stained of such infamy, along with just reparation for victims."
After underscoring this position, however, Bishop Versaldi brought up the existence of a "tenacity towards the Catholic Church," commenting that it is as if it were the institution with the most frequent instances of abuses.
He referred to a "much reduced" number of cases in the U.S. and "even fewer in Europe," saying that while this puts the phenomenon in perspective quantitatively, "it does not reduce in any way its condemnation nor the fight to eradicate it, as the priesthood demands that only humanly and spiritually mature people enter.”
"Even a single case of abuse by a priest would be unacceptable," he stressed.
But the "negative image" given to the Catholic Church is exaggerated, Bishop Versaldi said, considering that "no causal nexus exists" between the priest's celibacy and deviant behaviors. First of all, “because it is well known that sexual abuses of minors are more widespread among lay and married people than among celibate clergy; secondly, the statistics of the research highlight that the priests guilty of abuses already do not observe the vow of celibacy."
However, he continued, "it is even more relevant to underscore that the Catholic Church - despite the deformed image with which it is wished to be represented - is the institution that has decided to lead the clearest battle against sexual abuses against minors starting from within."
This is the place where Benedict XVI has given "a decisive impulse to this fight," thanks to his 20-plus years of service within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bishop Versaldi stated. From this "observatory," he explained, the Pope worked extensively with cases of sexual abuse and promoted reforms including "more rigorous" legislative norms.
"Now, as Supreme Pastor of the Church, the Pope maintains ... in this field a style of government that aims for the purification of the Church, eliminating the 'filth' that nests in it."
"Benedict XVI demonstrates himself to be, thus, a vigilant shepherd over his flock, despite the false image of (being) a devoted scholar only to writing books who would delegate to others the government of the Church," stressed the Bishop of Alessandria.
"It is thanks to the greater rigor of the Pope that several episcopal conferences are shedding light on cases of sexual abuses, collaborating also with civil authorities to render justice to the victims," he explained.
Bishop Versaldi then called it "paradoxical" that the Church would be represented "as if it were the responsible entity for abuses of minors." He also dubbed it "ungenerous" not to recognize "the merit" of the Church, "especially Benedict XVI," in leading "an open and decided battle against the crimes committed by its priests."
The bishop further proposed "another paradox" that exists today: that "wisely" established Church norms that are strict in preventing those who are immature "in the sexual field" from becoming priests, are “attacked and criticized by that same group that would like it to be the principal (entity) responsible for abuses of minors.
"The clear and rigorous line assumed by the Holy See," he concluded, "should instead be received in the Church ... to guarantee the truth, justice and charity towards everyone."
Bishop of Alessandria Giuseppe Versaldi is the ordinary emeritus of canon law and psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency!
GOOD FRIDAY 2005 - MEDITATIONS AND PRAYERS BY CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER
Any fair-minded person, Christian or otherwise, knows this is not unique to the Catholic church, nor to all of it’s clergy.
And we will be here to monitor and put things in perspective.
Freep should be the last place that Catholic bashing goes on.
“Too bad so many who profess to be Christian have already made up their minds to the guilt of the Catholic Church and all of its clergy. They will be showing up on this thread any moment with the same old lies and falsehoods.”
Why would they? Why should they? You’ve already answered them before they’ve spoken.
I think an argument can be made the celibacy in the Catholic church is a factor here, as I think a case can be made for quite the opposite. I think I myself could argue the Catholic church should be responding with far more vigor that it is, just as I’m sure you or others could argue they’re doing all they can.
But if your ears are already stopped then we’ll never have the discussion and we’ll never know.
**But the “negative image” given to the Catholic Church is exaggerated, Bishop Versaldi said, considering that “no causal nexus exists” between the priest’s celibacy and deviant behaviors. **
For all to read again!
If the total number of offenders (the Boston archdiocese had 150 priests with a record of abuse) is not large the number of their victims can be.
How could this go on without the knowledge of church officials? It didn't. Archbishop Law of Boston admitted he knew and reassigned abusive priests.
Law resigned in 2002. Anyone know where he is today?
Prophetic! See the post immediately below yours.
Excuse me but my comment was to Natural Law's original post at #3 which is before you posted your comment to the thread, which I did not read until now.
Thank you for making my point. There is plenty of information available to those who are genuinely interested in learning rather than opining and prematurely judging. Ask yourself why the incidence of sexual abuse is as little as 1/10 as prevalent in the Catholic Church as it is in comparable Protestant Churches and 1/50th as prevalent as it is in other civic institutions. Surely a truely curious person could conclude that the Church has done something.
Greetings MaryContrary!
This is ContraryMary. I certainly hope Freepers don’t confuse us. I’ve been a Freeper since 1999.
I'm very sorry to read this as the clean up began in 1984 when the bishops finally discussed it and began to put a stop to it. Nothing was reported at the time, but they began to refuse vocations from the sexually immature and the more vigilant of the bishops made over the seminary staffs. This didn't happen everywhere, but it started. If you look up the actual incident time-tables, the number fell off considerably after that year. This was also the year JPII finally put all of his own papal nuncios in office, so the bishops up and coming were vetted much more in line with Church teaching.
When the scandal broke in 2002, we were already 18 years into the clean-up. The incidents that surfaced were mostly decades old. In many dioceses, mine included, the archbishop sat down with the local prosecutor and spelled it all out. We had one true pedophilia incident in subsequent years and he went straight to jail and was laicized.
Each bishop is responsible for his own diocese and they must resign or be reassigned. It's more of a confederation than a top-down organization. Sometimes I wonder if this isn't what is misunderstood. The Church, overall, always had the prevention in place, it wasn't being utilized.
We who are devout Catholics were no less scandalized than anyone else when suddenly our beloved Barque of Peter was in the cross-hairs of a media determined to sling as much mud as possible. We defend Her, not necessarily men who make bad judgments.
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