Compare press reports of child sexual abuse to the Holocaust???
Yes, a high-ranking priest at the Vatican made this comparison in a sermon on Good Friday with the Pope in the audience. The Pope did not walk out or raise his hand or voice in disagreement.
See today's New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/world/europe/03church.html?hpw.
David Clohessy is quoted in the same article as saying, "Men who deliberately and consistently hide child sex crimes are in no way victims. And to conflate public scrutiny with horrific violence is about as wrong as wrong can be."
Showing posts with label Catholic church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catholic church. Show all posts
Saturday, April 3, 2010
"Thank the media"-- Peggy Noonan
Peggy Noonan in today's Wall Street Journal, "The Catholic Church's Catastrophe," says:
"The church shouldn't be saying j'accuse but thank you" to the press, which only in 2003 started to investigate child abuse in Boston after years of ignoring and shying away from the story.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303960604575158310656792820.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion
She says there are three groups of victims: the abused, the good priests and nuns, and the Catholics in the pews.
But Catholics should leave the pews and boycott the collection baskets until their leaders take decisive action, including instituting a canon law that abuse must be reported to local civil authorities.
The Pope and Cardinals must also rethink the 11th C. onward insistence on clerical celibacy and their even earlier ban on women priests. These make no sense in the context of widespread abuse under the celibate-men-only policy.
"The church shouldn't be saying j'accuse but thank you" to the press, which only in 2003 started to investigate child abuse in Boston after years of ignoring and shying away from the story.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303960604575158310656792820.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion
She says there are three groups of victims: the abused, the good priests and nuns, and the Catholics in the pews.
But Catholics should leave the pews and boycott the collection baskets until their leaders take decisive action, including instituting a canon law that abuse must be reported to local civil authorities.
The Pope and Cardinals must also rethink the 11th C. onward insistence on clerical celibacy and their even earlier ban on women priests. These make no sense in the context of widespread abuse under the celibate-men-only policy.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Hans Kung on the Crisis
Hans Kung commented on the crisis in the Catholic church on March 18 in the National Catholic Reporter.
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/sex-abuse-requires-rethinking-mandatory-celibacy
He says the current mess is another sign that church's policy requiring celibacy for priests is harmful.
Meanwhile, a colleague of mine commented that he saw only one problem with my commentary on Religion Dispatches this week: instead of concluding "The house of cards will fall," I should have written "is falling."
"My sense is that this may play out farther, deeper, and faster than any of us might have imagined in the past," he wrote in an email.
Farther and deeper and faster... oh my!
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/sex-abuse-requires-rethinking-mandatory-celibacy
He says the current mess is another sign that church's policy requiring celibacy for priests is harmful.
Meanwhile, a colleague of mine commented that he saw only one problem with my commentary on Religion Dispatches this week: instead of concluding "The house of cards will fall," I should have written "is falling."
"My sense is that this may play out farther, deeper, and faster than any of us might have imagined in the past," he wrote in an email.
Farther and deeper and faster... oh my!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tim Rutten on hypocrisy in the Catholic Church
Tim Rutten, my favorite columnist in the LA Times, speaks today on hypocrisy among conservative Catholics, especially the Legionaries of Christ, who concealed the pedophilia of their founder Marcial Maciel for years.
"...a list of Maciel's most vociferous defenders reads like a who's who of the conservative Catholic intellectuals who, in recent years, have insisted that Catholicism and membership in the Democratic Party are all but incompatible," he writes.
And of course, the Democratic Party's greatest sins in their eyes are supporting legal abortion, sex education, and access to contraception.
The furor in the Roman Catholic Church this week really comes down to gender politics: the hypocrisy of limiting reproductive choice and forbidding women priests while enabling and concealing pedophiles and other sexual sins through the old boys' network.
"...a list of Maciel's most vociferous defenders reads like a who's who of the conservative Catholic intellectuals who, in recent years, have insisted that Catholicism and membership in the Democratic Party are all but incompatible," he writes.
And of course, the Democratic Party's greatest sins in their eyes are supporting legal abortion, sex education, and access to contraception.
The furor in the Roman Catholic Church this week really comes down to gender politics: the hypocrisy of limiting reproductive choice and forbidding women priests while enabling and concealing pedophiles and other sexual sins through the old boys' network.
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