Soutane has made following this thread darn near impossible by all the mega-posting, but back to the topic,
I think that’s his intention LOL One certainly can’t deny his dedication to the Church
Everyone is entitled to absolution.
**
Well. you’d never know it by
some of the snotty-smarty-pants members, who should well know who they are. That was my point. How can you tell someone that their person sin can’t be forgiven, but on the other hand say that a child-molester-priest is entitled to absolution? Makes no sense to me.**
The well of mercy knows no bounds. For those who can not every see forgiving child abusers, perhaps it would help that Jesus bound our own ability to be forgiven by how we are willing to forgive others. If a child abuse sin (or murder) is held as an exception to reconciliation, then other serious sinners who turn to God in mercy may equally need to seek mercy and be deterred by the wagging tongue of the priest. The goal is nothing less than Heaven. As horrible as child abuse is, it is not worse than Hell. The Church maintains perspective between the suffering in this life and the suffering for all eternity that is often lost in emotionally charged topics.
**I agree with that. All sinners need abolution. But they need help to cure them of their disease, and the victims need help too. In addition, there needs to be a procedure in place to prevent the priest from doing it again. I believe that the condition to his absolution should be that he turn himself in to his Bishop. He needs PROPER help, not to be shielded from those who would throw him in jail. And he needs to be removed from the parish so that he doesn’t repeat the crime, which is sadly happening. With a crime so vile against children and even adults, simply being absolved is not enough. A simple absolution will not make him do what is right. In addition, the priest should report him to the Pope or the Bishop so that proper action can be taken. This nonsense of not revealing horrific crimes because the so-called “veil of confession” cannot be allowed in cases such as these. The Pope should rethink this and this is something he CAN do, and perhaps if a Pope would have cared enough about the victims, and would have placed this policies before, we wouldn’t have these problems now. Not to this extent.
It’s unfathomable that steps aren’t taken to fix this problem. Talk is cheap, and so are apologies. Make it happen so that those apologies have meaning. Not, “sorry” and then nothing gets done until the next drama unfolds 20 years later. It should be, sorry, and I’m doing this this and this to prove it, and to take steps to prevent it from happening again.**