The Anne Will programme on Germany’s ARD station last evening gave the entire show to the four-day conference on clerical child sex abuse.
The general consensus was that the Vatican was incapable of changing generations of wrong-doing in four days.
A victim of abuse at a Jesuit-run school in Berlin said the Vatican has an expertise at closing ranks.
He has asked the Vatican to open its archives.
Most members of the panel believe Pope Francis has missed a great opportunity.
Bishop Stephan Ackerman tried his best to speak positively of the conference. But he too saw its limitations.
Ackermann made reference to the polarisation that is taking place in the church, especially in the US and in countires which are more traditional in their Catholicism.
The bishop of Hildesheim was quoted as saying that child sex abuse is part of the DNA of the Catholic Church.
Imagine, all this about an organisation that has spent such enerrgy talking about ‘holy purity’.
A panelist gave the example of a senior surgeon losing his job in a Catholic-run hospital in Germany because he had married a second time, while at the same time priest abusers were moved from parish to parish.
The one woman on the panel of five found it absurd how the church is managed exclusively by men. She was raped by her parish priest when she was eight. In her journey of faith she has returned to the church of her birth.
This entire story is truly incredible.
Incredible too that Pope John Paul ll was canonised. He must have known.
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3 comments:
The official Church authorities, and I include the pope here, have shown that they still don't get it. There are three issues.
The first is that of the abuse itself. Worldwide, those clerics who were (or are) abusers need to be discovered, investigated, and dealt with by (state and canonical) judicial means. And the church needs to install control mechanisms at all levels (including training /formation) to insure that the possibility of abuse is massively reduced, and that quick and comprehensive action should it still occur takes place. This is happening in many countries like the US, Ireland, Australia, and Germany. Other countries (Poland, India, much of Africa and South America) lag seriously behind here. In this area the conference may have had some effect.
The second is that of failures in oversight and governance. Those superiors who have acted incorrectly - ignoring complaints, bullying victims, moving perverts from place to place etc. - have to be discovered and brought to account. The conference was weak on this point.
Thirdly, fundamental reform must take place, both on the organisational and theological level. The issue of power and its abuse has to be faced up to. This means deep changes in areas like the role and power of priests and bishops, the Vatican and its organisation. Accountability. Celibacy. Women priests - never mind what John Paul II said, as he must have been aware of at least some of what was going on he (and his canonisation) have been discredited. There is no sign at all that the "official" church is prepared to address this level.
Expressions of guilt and shame, as well as general calls to 'do penance' - no matter how sincerely meant - are far too little. The authorities in the church, from the pope down, still don't seem to have realised this.
It is reprehensible that the powers that be could behave so criminally, completely at odds with the Gospel. The countless ruined lives of completely innocent children. It's appalling. Not to mention the tortured, scrupulous consciences of probably many millions of Catholics worldwide who were taught a very negative sexual catechesis in childhood and who still run to the confessional in old age should an impure thought cross their minds, for fear they might be cast into hell. The Vatican has a lot to answer for. The double standards and hypocrisy are shocking. I had a little taste of their power games myself when in good conscience I applied to be laicised from the priesthood, so as to marry sacramentally. The whole process was horrible. The questions they ask. The secrecy involved. You don't even see the report they send to Rome. They try to prove that you should never have been a priest in the first place and that for the crime of wanting to marry there must be a mental instabilty so that you can be released from your promises. The galling this is they often showed far more compassion to offending priests who committed horrible acts on children and made sure they were provided for financially.Not to mention priests who had children, and didn;t want anything to do with them. And then we hear of Vatican officials involved in all sorts of illicit behaviour, including using the 'services' of vulnerable male refugees. The whole thing is warped. I still practice my faith but I have zero respect for the hierarchy. Due to the personal nature of what I said, I want to remain anonymous. I wouldn't want the holy brigade on top of me calling me a traitor or something.
And that secrecy is part of the DNA of the Catholic Church.
But it is unfortunate that your comment is anonymous.
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