Pope Francis's Letter 0f 20 August 2018

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Hodos said:
I would disagree there. The report itself says that some of the offenders were not reported until 2009.
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Yes, some. And there are currently bishops who might be culpable. I am not saying that they shouldn’t be censured/prosecuted/removed from office. But you use the word reported. When did these instances of abuse take place. In 1981 or 2008?
Hodos said:
I want the Church to be holy and pure as the bride of Christ. My intention is not to kick the Church while she is down.
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So do I, Hodos. It is just that there is a bunch of hysteria going around that seems to be coming from people who are seeing this as if it all happened last year. I posted on another thread that I feel sorry for my bishop. He has been in office for only three years and isn’t responsible for any cover up. And in his term, he had one instance of abuse presented to him. It occurred over 50 years ago, it was deemed credible, and the 70 something year old priest was removed in one day and action, both clerical and civil will take place. That was over 50 years ago before this priest was even in the seminary. I think among many if not all of the current bishops, there is a no nonsense, no exceptions approach. I know in my diocese there seems to be.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Accepting mass resignations from the bishops would be a good start.
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Just because they are bishops? Like I said somewhere before, the many of the bishops who are responsible, ARE ALREADY DEAD! Or at least retired and in their late 70’s or 80’s or older.
Yea, there may be a couple around, but that’s about it.
 
I sympathize as you do. I am just saying that the issues are far from over. There is still plenty of work to be done.
 
Oh, and in the future there will probably be isolated cases of abuse. Sin never goes away. But with what was put in place in Dallas and is now going to strengthened even more, I hope there will never again be the attitude of cover up that was evident 20, 30, or 40 years ago.
 
It’s all talk. Just cheap talk. I’m so sick of churchmen talking and talking, but doing nothing.

I don’t even know what to do anymore. I entered the Church in 2002, during that long Lent where the bad news kept coming first from Boston but then from other dioceses. But now, I honestly don’t know how much longer I can hang on to my faith. I’m trying, I really am, but various bishops and now the pope don’t make it easy by any means.

Pope Francis’ record on responding to abuse is stunningly, terribly, bad. For example: Pope Francis’ response earlier this year to the Chilean abuse scandal, and how even Cardinal O’Malley had to say publicly that the pope’s comments about the accusers were hurtful and wrong. Or Pope Francis personally inviting Card. Daneels of Belgium to the Synod on the Family – the same Card. Daneels who bungled the response to the case of another bishop who abused his nephew. Or Italian priest Don Mauro Inzoli, who Pope Benedict defrocked but Francis restored to the priesthood and sentenced to a life of prayer. (Only when Inzoli was sentenced to 5 years in prison for sexual abuse did Pope Francis change his mind again and remove him from the priesthood.)

Pope Francis could have Card. Wuerl, who was mentioned numerous times in the PA grand jury report from his time as bishop of Pittsburgh, out of office tomorrow. Card. Wuerl submitted his resignation as required almost 3 years ago when turned 75. The only thing keeping Wuerl in office is the pope’s desire that he stay there. The same for Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga in Honduras, who is one of the pope’s closest advisers despite saying in 2002 that the Jews (really!) were responsible for sex abuse in the Church, and never recanting that statement – not to mention all the allegations of current corruption in his archdiocese. But they’re Pope Francis’ buddies, so they stay.
 
joeybaggz said:
Yea, there may be a couple around, but that’s about it.
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Perhaps Cardinal Wuerl can join McCarrick in the disgraced former cardinals club. It wouldn’t restore credibility to the bishops as a whole, but it would be a step in the right direction.
 
I read the Pope’s letter, and it’s just so many words, like the many words from so many others, most of which call for the entire body of Christ to pray and fast and that “we need unity, we’re all in this together”. News flash: the laity haven’t done anything! Priests have!

These are the words of cowardly leaders who are afraid of bold, definitive action to exorcise these demons from the church. Stop talking, take action! Jesus didn’t just talk, form a committee, or come up with recommendations, when the situation needed it, He turned over tables. It’s time for our representative of Christ on earth to do the same.

Why in the hell is Wuerl still a priest, let alone a cardinal!
 
Why has Satan been allowed to attack the Church through the same method for so long?!
Satan was allowed to get a strong foothold. Satan has had success with his plans.
Or is Satan too easy a scapegoat?
 
Rahn said:
the laity haven’t done anything!
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That’s true most of the complainers are the laity and all they are doing is complaining and being no help whatsoever.
 
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None of it will matter. Pope Francis and the College of Cardinals could resign and close down the Catholic Church around the world, and all Catholic priests, bishops, and cardinals could turn themselves in and ask to be incarcerated for the crimes of the Church, and even the lay Catholics could publicly apologize and give all their income to help the victims while living in poverty themselves…and it wouldn’t matter.

The world would still attack the Catholic Church and Christianity.

How many of you have seen articles or stories in your area in the last week about the abuse in the Protestant churches? It’s coming–a massive attack on Protestant churches from the public and the media. Much of it will contain factual information about sexual and other abuses in these churches. But the attack won’t stop no matter what the Protestants do. There will be more and more calls for resignations and imprisonments and ending the whole Protestant church.

If any of you have ever been the victim of bullies, you might understand what I’m talking about. The bullies make fun of your clothes, so you ask your parents to get you some different clothes. Then the bullies make fun of your hobbies, your pets, your parents, your eye color…they just keep picking and picking at you, and nothing you do stops them. When you ask authorities (usually school teachers) for help, they tell you to use peaceful negotiation and work WITH the bullies. But they still make fun of you.

I’m not feeling particularly good about any of this because I think it doesn’t matter what steps the Church takes–we will still be under constant attack. And now it starts for the Protestants.

I think the Catholic Church has done plenty of good things over the last twenty years or so, and it seems to be making a difference, although all it takes is one man who succumbs to sexual temptation and who is discovered and outed to the media to negate the whole body of good policies and actions.

My personal opinion is that the men of the Church, mainly the laymen, need to work together and hold each other, including the priests, accountable. Many men will admit to having a weakness to some form of sex-sin, and I think that men should help each other to resist these temptations. And when men discover a man who has a desire for children or teenagers , they need to make sure that he is removed from any position of authority in the Church, and that he is constantly monitored and receiving psychological help. This should all be done with love, not for the purpose of humiliating or publicly exposing a sinner, because we are all sinners.
 
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No pun intended, given your username, but are you serious? What exactly would you have the laity do? The issue needs clerical action.
 
If the laity actually cared about the victims they would actually try to figure something out instead of making excuses.
 
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I’m a part of the “Protecting God’s Children” (VIRTUS) program in the Church. I think it is a incredibly well designed program that if fully implemented, could all but eliminate this problem. going forward. This program has been going on for more than a decade, but has yet to be fully implemented.

What I feel needs to be done is:
  • Have the Vatican require every diocese in the world to fully implement it, which would include every parish and every diocesan institution to fully implement it.
  • Screen and train every priest, staffer and volunteer that has interaction with minors through the parish.
  • Have a strict zero-tolerance policy for the rules of the program.
  • Train all congregations on the program through talks at Mass.
  • Have every diocese do regular spot audits of compliance at parishes, with consequences for non-compliance.
  • Have the Vatican or institutions like the USCCB do spot audits for compliance at dioceses, with consequences for non-compliance…
Nothing less would show that the Church is doing all it can. It has failed to do this over the last 10+ years and that is unfortunate.
 
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You are confusing the Church with a country in your anti-catholic rhetoric.

Also, even your premise is seriously flawed, that is just made up.
SeriousQuestion said:
If people actually cared about the victims they would actually try to figure something out instead of making excuses.
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Again, for instance?

Let’s see if you can names something (reasonable) that hasn’t been done.
 
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Yes, it is a word. Sometimes such nuances are lost in written communication. Three posts up, @jfz178 has posted what we do, and most of the country has done. It is very successful.
 
I’m trying to figure how you turned this into another paranoid “everyone is against the Catholic Church” thing. Do you not see that a grevious wrong has been done by the clergy of the Catholic Church, and that other clergy have covered it up? These men represent Christ to us!

This is not an attack on the Catholic Church. This is an opportunity for the Catholic Church to shut up critics by taking bold, decisive action.
 
I agree entirely that those who have committed the crimes and those who covered up the crimes should pay the penalties, both legal and spiritual, for their crimes.

But don’t you see, Rahn? It doesn’t matter what the Church does to bring these people to justice and to help the victims. It will never be enough to appease the world. No matter what the Church does, it won’t shut up the critics. The world will find something wrong with what we did, and then when we fix that, they’ll find something else, and it will go on and on that way.

I wish with all my heart you were right. Oh, I wish you were right.

What the Church needs to do is the Righteous Thing, which definitely involves bringing the perpetrators to justice and doing whatever we can to make sure they receive the appropriate punishment (imprisonment, fines, etc.) for their crimes. It also involves doing whatever we can to help the victims recover.

But we need to realize that it won’t be enough to appease a world that hates the Church. I’m so sorry, Rahn.
 
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