I find it perplexing that people actually consider leaving or not joining the Church based on the very public downfall of a few of its members. If you don’t want to be Catholic, fine, but if you don’t want to be Catholic because a few of its Priests committed grevious sins, then the fault isn’t the CHurch’s, its yours. I mean, it’d be like being born in Berlin and not wanting to be German because of, well… you know…?
With that said, as a Church I think we need to be very honest. Yes, there are Priests who have committed these sins, yes, children have been harmed. I understand the concept of forgiveness and some of these Priests could have repented privately and the Bishops let them continue. However, when a sin is a private sin, repent in private, if a sin is public, repent in public, and if one is truly sorry for their actions, then they will do what they can to appease those they harmed. If you murder someone, and go to confession, yes, in teh eyes of the Lord you are forgiven, but that’s not the end of it, you can’t just go home and continue like nothing happened. If your’e truly sorry, you must take responsibility for your actions. You’d go to the cop shop and turn yourself in and face whatever punishment awaits.
The other thing, as others have mentioned, the Church is always going to be attacked more than any other insitutition. We are the Bride of Christ, its not really the CHurch they’re attacking, it’s Him. There are plenty (if not more) paedophiles in the teaching profession, but you don’t dump the sins of a few on the doorsteps of the many.
But I think we need to be tread carefully, yes, if it is proven beyond any doubt that a Priest has sinned in this matter, turn him over to the civil authorities and excommunicate him. However, I know of priests who were completely innocent and someone who didn’t like them decided to spread that paedophile lie about them, its very destructive, and even if its disproven, people will still be weary.
There was a case a while ago down here, when someone accused a priest of molesting them, it was in all the papers, the Bishops and Cardinal went into damage control, the CHurch was getting horrific press. The poor chap was forced to resign as a priest and essentially booted out.
A few months later it was discovered that the priest had not molested this guy. The person making the claims was an adult, saying he had been abused at the Catholic school this priest taught at. Turns out, the guy had never been to the school, his cousin had, and his cousin had told him about this priest being really strict, but fair. So, this guy decided to make a quick buck or get his 15 minutes or whatever went through his twisted skull.
And once the truth was out, it was in a tiny little few sentances in the back sections of the paper, not a sniff on the radio or news. Nothing.
Just a Priest who’s life was destoryed by lies.
These accusations need to be dealt with by the proper authorities, the accused priest should have name suppression, just like any child molester or rapist accused, only when it is proven that they are guilty should their name be released. Even the fact they are a priest needs to be hidden until the guilt has been determined.
Long and short of it, respond with calm and clairty, point out that there are just as many, if not more paedophiles in the teaching profession, that if such abuses have happened, they shoudl not be covered up, but that the justice system guarentees a fair trial to all, and that innocent until proven guilty still applies to the most horrific of offenders.
Pray for unity and strenght in the Church. Yes, it is shameful that some priests do these awful things, but it is not your shame to bare. And one certainly shouldn’t leave, or refuse joining the CHurch because of the actions of a few.
