It is astonishing to read the rebuttals and justification on this crisis. It is happening all over the globe. In Ireland, the bedrock of Catholicism, we are talking in the thousands over 6 decades of abuse. The reason the world is focusing on this, whereas we all know other abuse occurs in other organizations and society as well, is the fact the Church stands on the platform of Moral Authority.
In the Catholic Catechism 1547…“In their ministry of service, priests represent Christ to us, as our shepherds and pastors, as preachers and teachers of the Word, and as celebrants of the Liturgy and the Sacraments, with the authority ‘to act in the power and place of the person of Christ Himself,’ granted by their ordination into Holy Orders. Priests not only represent Christ to the faithful, they also represent us to God when presenting our prayers, and especially when offering the Eucharistic sacrifice to God, ‘through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, to God the Father.’ As in Pentecost, with the Holy Spirit outpouring onto the Apostles, the Bishops - representing the Lord’s Apostles - transmit forward the ordination into Holy Orders by the imposition of hands.”
So when the secular society hears of priest who should be representing Christ commit these heinous crimes, then the secular world is incredulous concerning the legitimacy of Her teachings.
I read statements and opinions about how the secular media is attacking the church unfairly and that they should look at other organizations about their sexual abuse. This is to me, is an ad hominine argument at best. It’s like saying yes I murder that guy but why focus on me, there are thousands of other murderers out there that you should focus your attention on. The fact remains, did you commit the murder and if you did you should be held accountable regardless if thousands of other also committed the same heinous crime. It’s a misdirection tactic that is logically weak and dismissive. Even Pope Benedict XVI and the leadership in the church admitted to their mistakes and refused to blame the press as a scapegoat to the current crisis within the church. The church is the not ecclesiastical hierarchy as some may think but the entire body of believers. When one suffers all suffer throughout the body of Christ.
The problem lies in the fact that some Shepherds of the flock failed to protect the sheep from ravenous wolves who appeared as false shepherds to attack and destroy the sheep within. Jesus and St. Paul continuously warned about false shepherds that will try to infiltrate the church especially in the end times to lead many astray. The duty of the good shepherd is to protect the flock from these wolves which the church woefully failed to do in a number of cases. There is a “fifth” Column within the Church.
Jesus warned about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Priests who strut about in the market place in his time seeking the praises of men but ignoring the suffering of the people in their charge. There focus was on themselves rather then the care of the sheep in their charge. Jesus pointed out, Woe unto you…"!
St Paul enacted a procedure for those that work a little leaven within the church. Expel the person from the body and turn them over to Satan until they repent. All priest that who committed such heinous crimes should immediately be laicized from the church and never be readmitted to their priestly functions. Forgiveness upon repentance but the lost of their right to be priest should be permanent.
For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 1 Peter 4:17.
The basis of the Gospel of God is Love. Sin violates that love and those the hide, condone or cover-up share in that sin.
Saint Irenaeus in his dialogues against heresies stated Christian obligations during the early church period:
[He told us] to share all our possessions with the poor; and not to love our neighbors only, but even our enemies; and not merely to be liberal givers and bestowers, but even that we should present a gratuitous gift to those who take away our goods. For “to him that takes away thy coat,” He says, “give to him thy cloak also; and from him that takes away thy goods, ask them not again; and as ye would that men should do unto you, do ye unto them:”so that we may not grieve as those who are unwilling to be defrauded, but may rejoice as those who have given willingly, and as rather conferring a favor upon our neighbors than yielding to necessity. “And if any one,” He says, “shall compel thee [to go] a mile, go with him twain so that thou may not follow him as a slave, but may as a free man go before him, showing thyself in all things kindly disposed and useful to thy neighbor, not regarding their evil intentions, but performing thy kind offices, assimilating thyself to the Father, “who makes His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sends rain upon the just and unjust.” Now all these [precepts], as I have already observed, were not [the injunctions] of one doing away with the law, but of one fulfilling, extending, and widening it among us; just as if one should say, that the more extensive operation of liberty implies that a more complete subjection and affection towards our Liberator had been implanted within us. For He did not set us free for this purpose, that we should depart from Him (no one, indeed, while placed out of reach of the Lord’s benefits, has power to procure for himself the means of salvation), but that the more we receive His grace, the more we should love Him. Now the more we have loved Him, the more glory shall we receive from Him, when we are continually in the presence of the Father.
It shows how far we have moved away from the true message of the Gospel.
