AmericanPapist Comments
It's hard to imagine that any bishop who facilitated the sodomy of young children is much threatened by Benedict's meeting with the victims.
The meeting and Benedict's very quotable "sound bytes" about the scandals are nice gestures, but really are meaningless in the absence of administrative follow-up.
Cardinal Ratzinger said in 2002 that the furor over the pedophile priests who were being discovered in every dicoese was orchestrated by a hysterical media. Back then, he clearly was part of the problem. He was in a position of authority then to come down hard in favor of the victims, but figuratively spit in their faces.
As pontiff, he has been in a position to make some meaningful changes, begining with removing from office the bishops who orchestrated the sex abuse, some for decades. He has not done so, and there is no evidence he intends to do so.
It's very hard to believe the vast majority of American bishops when they claim suggest they are "pained" or "hurt" by the scandals. If they had a conscience, they would have resigned. Yet, they remain in office, grooming another generation of deceitful bishops.
"Orchestrated the sex abuse?"
Isn't there a difference between negligence or indifference and "orchestration?"
I'd go for "orchestration" among some bishops. Moving abusive priests, repetitively from parish to parish after repeated incidents suugets orchestration to me and at best wanton/gross negligence, i.e., wrecklesness.
That being said, I think this action by the Pope is really marvelous. Nevertheless, I'd like to see Law lose his various sinecures in Rome and a little more "push" on some bishops, such as Mahony, to be more forthcoming.
"To err is human, to forgive is divine" (Alexander Pope). The truth of the matter is that only with God’s grace can we find the courage to forgive. And by the Pope embracing these victims, this is what he wants to get across to them. Only by placing their pain and suffering at the foot of the cross will they find the peace to move on. I am not undermining their pain and suffering. It is real and has great consequences, but no amount of money will take the pain away or make it all right. Only God’s infinite love and embrace can take the pain and hurt away. But for this they have to trust in His mercy. By this gesture, the Pope is crystallizing for these victims the message he has come to proclaim: Our hope comes from God and his Love for us. But a hard heart will never be able to hear this message, just like the Pharisees could not believe and see that Jesus was Christ, even thought he raised his friend Lazarus after being dead for three days.
Brassband asks: "Orchestrated the sex abuse? ... Isn't there a difference between negligence or indifference and `orchestration?' "
Of course there is a difference. Most of these bishops were not "indiferent" or negligent." They lied, they covered up, they were in some cases knowingly violating state and federal law.
Brassband, what planet to you live on? If you are on Planet Earth, you might read Cardinal Bevilacqua's testimony to the grand jury, and the subsequent grand jury report.
http://www.bishop-accountability...y/
Philly_01.pdf
Cardinal Bevilacqua is a skilled and cunning lawyer. He went to extradinary lengths to keep the pedophile priests in action. He and his people admit this. No Catholic boy in any Philadelphia parish was safe while he was in power.
Mr McNally,
I hope your comments are based primarily on concern for the victims and those hurt by men who should have known and done better. It sounds to me like you're generalizing regarding bishops being deceiving. Our Lord forgave His killers. Why don't you try to forgive those bishops and pray for them? Just a suggestion.
Mr Mcnally,
And another thing,Pope Benedict's words and actions brought a lot of people back into the Church. One of them being a victim whom he met. Quit being an armchair critic.
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