Think of all the people who have jumped on this thread and stated that the Catholic Church has handled the “scandal” all wrong — are you saying that the Catholic Church should have, instead, forced the “victims” to accept the apologies of the priests who supposedly molested them?
Would that be the CHRISTIAN way for the Catholic Church to handle things, in your view?
Is that why every non-Catholic is castigating the Church? Because the Catholic Church did not demand that the “victims” forgive their alleged molesters? Because that’s not what I’m getting here.
Instead, there is almost universal condemnation of the Catholic Church by the anti-Catholic bigots here, and not one of them has suggested that the victims forgive the perpetrators. Instead, there has been a disgusting display of glee over how much the Church has paid to help those poor victims recover, as though the amount of the money corresponded to the severity of the alleged molestation.
That makes no sense. I cannot make it make sense. And I never heard Christ say anything about little children (did you speicify an age?) must forgive those who harm then.
I think that most of us have trouble with forgiveness and the the more horrific the transgression, the more difficult it is.
As impossible as it may seem to forgive child molesters, we should realize that our Lord Himself also understood how hard it would be to forgive these monsters. Nevertheless, He explains in Luke 17:1-4 that we must forgive, but that He will punish them.
Absolutely.