How do you recommend handling it ? A good Corinth style housecleaning. Have the CC church have their own investigation and trial and turn the guilty and those who covered/ moved the guilty(accessories to the crime) over to the authorities? The media won’t let up till they see something done.
The media is a beast that does not get satisfied, no matter what. It is in bed with organizations that have targeted the Church as their enemy, mainly for its unchanged teachings on homosexuality and abortion, which I fully support.
The subject of this thread is the CNN report which wrongly concluded that Cardinal Ratzinger was responsible for and had the authority to police clergy abuse before 2001. It was just piling untruths and half truths together with some truths.
Admittedly, the Church was slow to act, but there is a misconception that it has not moved to investigate the cases. Here in the U.S, for example, the Catholic Bishops commissioned the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to investigate the problem. In 2004, the college came up with the John Jay Report, acknowledging where abuse did occur, and attributing the problem to the hierarchy’s failure to grasp the seriousness of the problem, overemphasis on the need to avoid scandal, use of unqualified treatment centers, misguided willingness to forgive (forgiveness and redemption are important Church teachings), and insufficient accountability. In the backdrop, the Church has had to deal with priests leaving their vocation and a decrease in applicants to the priesthood.
In substantiated cases, payments were already made and settlements reached to compensate victims. The process is still ongoing in mass tort or class action litigation by diocese. Of course it is slow, as cases still need to be investigated and reviewed one by one, so as to throw out the fraudulent claims. Those priests guilty of crimes against minors were tried and put behind bars where they belong.
I do not know how or what the Church should do with those in the hierarchy who provided cover to the abusing priests.
There is no question that the Church is in a deep crisis, but corrections were and are being undertaken, i.e., laicization or defrocking where appropriate. Pro-active claim and risk management programs, as well as best practices, have been instituted and being implemented in each and every parish now. Applicants for priesthood also undergo stricter background checks and psychological testing in an effort to weed out candidates who are not suited for the vocation.
Pope BXVI has also expressed publicly his condemnation of the abuses and sorrow for the victims in more than one occasion. In addition, he has met with some victims to express a direct apology for the sins of the offending priests.
Clearly, the Church has undertaken efforts in house cleaning, in my view.
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