Abp. Chaput: Sex abuse crisis has left laity, priests, bishops ‘angry’ with Rome

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Not everyone is angry with ‘Rome’, whatever that means, he didn’t really say. I don’t even see any relevance to it in my life. I don’t know anyone who’s been abused, or any priests who’ve been accused.

He talked about some weighty issues in his speech that I don’t think were even mentioned in this article. Issues which I think have much more relevance than anger at Rome. He should focus more on that stuff. That’s the stuff that people need to hear.

One of the reasons people have left the Church is because they don’t see it as being relevant in their lives. So it’s strange that a few times he mentions “sifting the Church”, as in becoming smaller. And then on the other hand starts talking about a few things that are actually relevant to today’s people, things that might actually draw a person in to church.
We live in a time when more and more of life is put up for sale. Young people today often use the term “frenemy,” a contraction of friend and enemy. It’s a revealing word. It reflects the fact that so much of their lives is consumed in the struggle for a foothold in our hyper-competitive system. Nearly all relations are becoming transactional, including sex. The fact that the Church isn’t finally “selling” anything is a powerful witness to the truth that life is about more than getting, and getting, and getting. Instead, in a fully human life, the deepest satisfaction comes from giving.

Our age, like every age, lives in fear of death. For all of its noisy confidence, the world whispers a relentless lie in our ears: “Death has final authority.” In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God shows his power in a full and final way, and the lie is smashed. This gives us an extraordinary freedom, for in the promise of eternal life through Christ, the claims which principalities and powers make upon our lives are shattered. When death is deprived of its sting, those who follow Jesus can risk anything, venture everything.
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Since we as Catholics are all part of the same body, ,you should be angry and hurting re the abuse ,regardless of whether it affects you directly or not.This is a scourge on the Church,our Church and Pope Francis has been remiss in his duty as our Pope to more stridently address the issue
 
It’s kind of obvious people are angry in general, especially given the response of some clerics as if “nothing to see here folks.” They should be angry and if they’re not there’s something wrong with them. Pews have seemed emptier and even this forum has seemed quite dead from how I remember it.
 
I personally am not angry for a variety of reasons that I’ve already been over on various threads (the cases are quite old, the perpetrators are getting old and dying off, I haven’t ever known any victims and only distantly knew 1 accused priest who has been dead for a while) but I would have to be hiding under a rock not to notice that a great many other laypeople are angry and upset. People are expressing their anger and upset on every Catholic forum, through the media, and occasionally in person.
 
Jeanne_S said:
Pope Francis has been remiss in his duty as our Pope to more stridently address the issue
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He has done more than his predecessors. In fact, more abuse and cover ups in the news today happened under St. JPII and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI than did Pope Francis. I’m not sure they did anything substantial to address it like Pope Francis has.

But I don’t think I need to join in the anger. I’m not angery about it. I don’t think most people are angry about it. If they are they don’t show it except for on some internet rant.
 
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I’m very angry. Our cases are not old cases. They are current ones. And I’ve been shocked buy the actions of our parish, our diocese, our conference of bishops, the Vatican, and the Pope. Shocked.
 
Honestly, I’m not shocked anymore. Isn’t that horrible? I’m so jaded that the responses of bishops and the pope don’t shock me anymore – of course they’d cover it up, of course they’d protect abusers, etc. I’m deeply angry. But not shocked anymore.
 
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