Bro. I respect you and your oponion a great deal. But I have to disagree with you. Would the CC ever admited the wrongs that had been done if not caught? I seriously doubt it.
I can’t answer that with any honesty, because once something has happened a certain way, as is this case, the rest would be pure speculation.
However, knowing history, I can say this. There have been many terrible things that have happened in the Church during her 2,000 year history and there have been many people who have done these terrible things. In every case the Church has always come around and admitted the sinfulness of the events and of the individuals. If there is one thing that must be said about the Catholic faith is that it is honest about its history. I beleive that if it had not been made public at that time, it would have been made public as some point. And it would have been made public with a sincerely contrite heart. If there is one quality of the Church of which we Catholics should be proud, it is her honesty about herself and her humility. Other faiths are not as forthcoming with the things that went wrong in their history nor do they preesnt as contrite. Just a recent example was John Paul’s appeal for forgiveness for the Catholic’s failures during the Shoah.
We don’t know what would have happened if the press had not reported the problems. But I believe that at some point they would have become public and it would have been the Church herself to make them public as she has done with other problems that have been just as serious.
To close, don’t get me wrong, I don’t find it wrong that the media reported their findings. Along with my concern about the problem itself, I am also concerned about the media’s motives. I still believe that if the media were truly honest, it would report the facts, but refrain from attacking the Church and it would refrain from insinuating that the Church has some master plan to do harm to people. The media has done this and it has done this very deliberately.
My second concern is about Catholics who join the media in its condescension toward Catholicism. If my brother does something terribly wrong and if it becomes public, so be it. But please do not attack my family and do not misrepresent it. For a member of the family to go along with the misrepresentation is wrong.
I believe that we can be honest and humble about the terrible violations that have taken place and at the same time be very proud of the fact that the Church remains holy and continues to do more good for the human soul than the harm that some of its members have done. One does not have to go to either extreme: to avoid the truth about sin or avoid the truth about holiness.
Our personal holiness will happen when we strike that balance in our treatment of this problem and whatever problems make come up in the future.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
