More Scandal - The Worst Is Yet To Come

[the_geezer]

The Barrister:

Why?

Although we can question the source, that doesn’t necessarily mean a) the story is incorrect, or b) it will have no impact.

We’re not ostriches, and we can’t run away from the issue.

Oh, I agree. We can’t run away from the issue.

It’s just that the Church will prevail over the gates of hell, and the newsrag in question is, generally, an instrument of liberal agitprop.

The Church will survive the newsrag liberal agitprop.

This thread was started with innuendo **(“THE WORST IS YET TO COME”) **and speculation, with a theme of in-group privilege to spice it up. The effect is to create suspense and anxiety. Why aid anxiety? That only demoralizes. That only erodes confidence and faith.

Why not see just how much of an issue it is, first? I’m prepared most of the time for attacks on the Church, so I’ll wait until there is one…better to be at peace until the threat actually materializes.

 

[hawkeye]

The Barrister:

Brace yourselves – we’ve now received word that the worst of the scandal is yet to hit. According to Domenico Bettinelli (courtesy of a heads-up from faithful Catholic and Dallas Morning News writer Rod Dreher), we’re looking at a new round of sexual allegations that will blow the bishops’ cover and re-ignite the scandal.

A few weeks ago I said we wern’t out of it yet, that there is still more trouble ahead, but was Jesus responsible for Judas ?
Anyway if your familar with the dreams of St’ Don Bosco then it adds a little more light to what lies ahead.

On Sunday, The Dallas Morning News will begin publishing the results of a major yearlong investigation into a largely uncovered aspect of the Catholic sex abuse scandal. The series of stories are international in scope, and will make headlines nationally and overseas. I’m not at liberty to disclose details yet, but I’ve seen advanced copies of the articles, and they are devastating. I believe at this point, more details will be available on Friday morning, when one of the reporters on the series does an interview on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” The stories will be available on the dallasnews.com website starting either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

I expect these stories to dominate conversation among concerned American Catholics next week, and into the early summer (because there will be much more to come; next week’s series only reveals part of what our reporters have uncovered and documented). These findings give lie to the claim from Church officialdom that this scandal is over. The cover-up continues.
In follow up comments, Rod notes that he’s seen “the planned cover of Sunday’s DMN. The picture they’re going to run is a jaw-dropper.”

This could be huge. I posted this in the Apologist section because we MUST be prepared to answer questions and defend the faith. As for the bishops, they can fend for themselves.

 

[Mandi]

Nicole:

They will forget all of the wonderful things the Church does.

I don’t want to sound insincere because I love the Church, but I’m just wondering exactly what wonderful things it has done lately?

Right now my father is in hospital St. Joseph’s to be exact. The very same hospital I was born in. Except when I was born the hospital was full of nuns lovingly working for God and His Church. Now it is full of nurses - something was very wrong with my father, he thought he was going to die. He called for the priest, Father came to the hospital - very inconveinently after visiting hours as we were told with a disgusted look.

My point is (nurses aside) that the hospital is no longer Catholic. So if we are losing at a steady pace that which once was accomplished because of the Church what signs or good works do we see in progress that we can say ----- there ---- all of this because of The Church!!!

If any have suggestions I would love to hear them

 

[The_Barrister]

the_geezer:

Oh, I agree. We can’t run away from the issue.

It’s just that the Church will prevail over the gates of hell, and the newsrag in question is, generally, an instrument of liberal agitprop. The Church will survive the newsrag liberal agitprop. This thread was started with innuendo and speculation, with a theme of insider privilege to spice it up. Why aid anxiety?

Why not see if it is indeed an issue first?

I do object to the terms “innuendo” and “speculation” as applied to this thread, and I do take umbrage at the innuendo that I’m trying to stir things up.

I started this thread as a heads-up so that we can take the time to prepare for the onslaught. Waiting is not an option. I don’t consider that to be “aiding anxiety.” I have no reason at all to call into question Rod Dreher’s reputation. He is a faithful Catholic - yes, he writes for “an instrument of liberal agitprop” (good term, Geezer!) but given his status at the DMN and his reputation in the Catholic community as an orthodox and faithful Catholic, he would not send out this alert without good reason, and I wouldn’t post it without good reason.

 

[Mandi]

The Barrister:

I started this thread as a heads-up so that we can take the time to prepare for the onslaught.

Thank you, I appreciate the heads-up. I for one am tired of being lumped in with all the abusers - these are sad days for the Catholic Church - what will it take to straighten it out!!!

“O Sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence, and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thy altar eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries, to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject.”

 

[Salena]

This is a “big deal” to me and it pains me to hear this news. When the scandal first started I was trying to turn my life around, but I refused to be a part of the Catholic Church any longer. Thank God I did find my way back.
It’s not so much the priest who are involved, but that the Church has covered it up. This is truly an embarrassing situation and I’m ashamed of our so called leaders.
What station will this air on?? I have satellite radio. Can I pick it up there?

 

[The_Barrister]

Mandi:

I don’t want to sound insincere because I love the Church, but I’m just wondering exactly what wonderful things it has done lately?

Right now my father is in hospital St. Joseph’s to be exact. The very same hospital I was born in. Except when I was born the hospital was full of nuns lovingly working for God and His Church. Now it is full of nurses - something was very wrong with my father, he thought he was going to die. He called for the priest, Father came to the hospital - very inconveinently after visiting hours as we were told with a disgusted look.

My point is (nurses aside) that the hospital is no longer Catholic. So if we are losing at a steady pace that which once was accomplished because of the Church what signs or good works do we see in progress that we can say ----- there ---- all of this because of The Church!!!

If any have suggestions I would love to hear them

It would take more time than I have available here to tell you all the good things the Church did in the last 24 hours, from saving the lives of preborn infants to feeding millions of poor people to providing free-of-charge medicine and medical care to millions more.

I would not put too much faith into what others may have interpreted as “a disgusted look” on the part of the priest, particularly if they had not been with the priest all day to see what he had been through. After visiting hours? Do you know when he was called and how far he had to travel?

St. Joseph’s Hospital is not the Church. If you can find enough nuns to staff a hospital, then God bless you, put 'em to work!

Point is: do not despair. Offer it up to God and let Him help you get through your crisis. Do not abandon God, for He won’t abandon you!

 

[Nicole]

Mandi:

I don’t want to sound insincere because I love the Church, but I’m just wondering exactly what wonderful things it has done lately?

Well, worldwide the Church helps a lot of people. In my neck of the woods, there is a Catholic childrens hospital that will never turn anyone away for lack of money, there are free Catholic counselors, assistance if you cannot pay your utility bills, food assistance. One example I can think of on a global scale is the number of AIDS victims the Church’s programs care for. Also, the Legion of Christ has medical missions to Brazil and El Salvador coming up this Fall. I know other groups do that too. I could go on and on. Does that help?

Nicole

 

[the_geezer]

The Barrister:

I do object to the terms “innuendo” and “speculation” as applied to this thread, and I do take umbrage at the innuendo that I’m trying to stir things up.

No offense intended. But what are “we” doing to prepare for the onslaught? Worrying? Becoming depressed? What are we to do, with THE WORST YET TO COME?

I went to the URL in the first post,and it was largely more of the same: hand-wringing, statements based upon pure speculation and - yes - innuendo. If there is speculation and innuendo, I may say that it is there, certainly. I did not state that to be your intent since obviously I am not omnicient and cannot assess your motivations. I assume them to be constructive.

I’ve allowed myself to suffer what I call internet anxiety, waiting for that tidbit posted at Catholic.org’s forum, or freerepublic, or democraticunderground to confirm my conviction, or to deliver me from fear…and it seldom happens. The datum never appears, the anxiety never subsides, and knowledge doesn’t increase, until the facts surface.

Thank you, I’ll wait until the story breaks to assess damage, to see if it really is the WORST TO COME.

Regards.

 

[YinYangMom]

I’m more concerned about what the Pope and Rome are going to do about this. It is out of our hands, though we are certainly called to pray for all involved and for the Church to heal.

Whenever the subject is raised in the workplace or in social circles the thing I hear most from Protestants and athiests is that Rome has treated this way too lightly and until Rome takes a hard stand and allows/assists in getting the guilty priests convicted rather than using Church money to settle or buy their guilt off whatever I have to say as a Catholic does not hold much weight in the argument.

They want to see justice, not a cover up or buy off. They understand and appreciate the Church forgiving the sinner should he confess, but the time must still be served.

This news story you refer to - being as it hasn’t been released yet and we won’t really know if it will until next week - will only confirm that which the doubtful suspected all along, and rally those who stand for the Church stronger behind her.

 

[hawkeye]

The Barrister:

Brace yourselves – we’ve now received word that the worst of the scandal is yet to hit. According to Domenico Bettinelli (courtesy of a heads-up from faithful Catholic and Dallas Morning News writer Rod Dreher), we’re looking at a new round of sexual allegations that will blow the bishops’ cover and re-ignite the scandal.

On Sunday, The Dallas Morning News will begin publishing the results of a major yearlong investigation into a largely uncovered aspect of the Catholic sex abuse scandal. The series of stories are international in scope, and will make headlines nationally and overseas. I’m not at liberty to disclose details yet, but I’ve seen advanced copies of the articles, and they are devastating. I believe at this point, more details will be available on Friday morning, when one of the reporters on the series does an interview on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” The stories will be available on the dallasnews.com website starting either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

I expect these stories to dominate conversation among concerned American Catholics next week, and into the early summer (because there will be much more to come; next week’s series only reveals part of what our reporters have uncovered and documented). These findings give lie to the claim from Church officialdom that this scandal is over. The cover-up continues.
In follow up comments, Rod notes that he’s seen “the planned cover of Sunday’s DMN. The picture they’re going to run is a jaw-dropper.”

This could be huge. I posted this in the Apologist section because we MUST be prepared to answer questions and defend the faith. As for the bishops, they can fend for themselves.

Anyway as I said a few weeks ago that we were still in for a rough time, but was Jesus responsible for the treachery of Judas ?

 

[system]

Barrister,

I agree–no person is beyond salvation.

However, the Church is already well entrenced with people who do not hold the real faith. The Church must respond with a firm resolve to return to the real faith, even if that means many will leave. That is the only way the Church can properly reach all nations. The Church does no good if it is reaching people with falsehoods and lies…it must evangelize with the full truth–which means during this period of time the Church may suffer much loss–but later it will see growth like never before.

A person with cancer might suffer much, they might even see their human bodies degrade to near nothingness…but once the cancer is gone, their body rebounds to full health again. It is the same with the Body of Christ. There has been a growing cancer in the Church for several decades…and the Church must suffer in order to cut-out the cancer. After the cancer is gone, or at least controlled, then the Church will be better able to spread the Gospel to all nations.

 

[The_Barrister]

hawkeye:

Anyway as I said a few weeks ago that we were still in for a rough time, but was Jesus responsible for the treachery of Judas ?

Not on topic, but I’ll respond:

No, but He chose Judas anyway, knowing that Judas would betray Him. Judas’ decision was of his own free will. We should not blame God for our own erroneous decisions.

 

[The_Barrister]

thomasj317:

Barrister,

I agree–no person is beyond salvation.

However, the Church is already well entrenced with people who do not hold the real faith. The Church must respond with a firm resolve to return to the real faith, even if that means many will leave. That is the only way the Church can properly reach all nations. The Church does no good if it is reaching people with falsehoods and lies…it must evangelize with the full truth–which means during this period of time the Church may suffer much loss–but later it will see growth like never before.

A person with cancer might suffer much, they might even see their human bodies degrade to near nothingness…but once the cancer is gone, their body rebounds to full health again. It is the same with the Body of Christ. There has been a growing cancer in the Church for several decades…and the Church must suffer in order to cut-out the cancer. After the cancer is gone, or at least controlled, then the Church will be better able to spread the Gospel to all nations.

Then you and I are basically in agreement!

 

[cazayoux]

thomasj317:

Barrister,

… and the Church has done little to nothing about that over the last 30 years or so.

Howdy !!

I’d argue that the Church has made some incredible strides to educate. LIFETEEN wasn’t around when I was a teenager, but it is now. This alone has fixed the knowledge-of-the-faith complacency that my parent’s generation gave to mine.
And for adults we have RENEW and I recently attended a weekend men’s retreat called CHRP (chirp) : Christ renews his parish.
There are quite a few Cathlic fellowship organizations out there that are either addressing the lack of knowledge of the faithful at a young age or scooping up the rest of us that missed out as young adults.
thomasj317:

The abuse problems are merely a reflection of how far the Church has strayed …

The Church has not strayed one iota.
Some men have, though.

michel

 

[hawkeye]

The Barrister:

Not on topic, but I’ll respond:

No, but He chose Judas anyway, knowing that Judas would betray Him. Judas’ decision was of his own free will. We should not blame God for our own erroneous decisions.

I’m not blaming God

 

[The_Barrister]

hawkeye:

I’m not blaming God

Oops! Didn’t mean to imply that you were! I took it as a rhetorical question, and gave a rhetorical answer.

 

[system]

cazay,

I disagree. If the programs you cited were working, then confession lines would be full, most Catholics would believe in the Real Presence, Catholics would not vote for any pro-choice candidates, abortion would be illegal, same-sex marriage would not be even on the radar, etc…

I agree that the “faith” has not let us down…but the instituional aspect of the Church most defintitely has failed to teach the faith in any meaningful way. This is not to say all is doom and gloom, for I agree with your spirit of hope, and I feel that there are many good things beginning to happen within the faith–the revelation of the abuses is actually a very good thing because it is leading to a purification of the faith. However, we will have to past through many days of fire-like testing before the Church/faith comes into a better day.

 

[JimO]

Thomas,

If the programs weren’t working, more parishes would be closing, vocations would continue to decline at an even steeper rate, the Church in the U.S. would likely have split and things would be even more bleak. I know a lot of people whose faith (orthodox faith) has been profoundly deepened by Lifeteen and CHRP. Most of the hundreds of people I’ve met in those two programs alone have embraced the orthodox teaching of the Church. Without those programs, many of those same people would have either left the Church for the world or for other churches in their search for spiritual food.

 

[rfk]

I’ve heard a lot of talk about “clearing out the rot”, “getting rid of the deadwood”, “purging the problem”, here and elsewhere.

The thing I worry about is what if clearing out the homosexual behavior problem means losing half our bishop and priests? Where will we get the sacraments?