Vatican summit on Irish sex abuse crisis

[didymus]

NCR:

Vatican summit on Irish sex abuse crisis

The two most senior prelates in Ireland will meet Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials in Rome this Friday, Dec. 11, to discuss what a Vatican statement today called the “painful situation” related to publication of a damning recent report on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, President of the Irish bishops’ conference, and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin will meet the pope, along with Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, the papal nuncio, or ambassador, to Ireland.

The conclusions in the Murphy Report did not paint church leaders in a positive light, asserting that at least until the mid-1990s, the priorities of the Dublin archdiocese “were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities.”

Sadly, by trying to “prevent scandal” they have sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind. The damage to the Church will not be healed in my lifetime, maybe for a long time after.

Yes, the media and anti-Catholics have latched onto this issue but they couldn’t have if it weren’t true in the first place.

 

[whatevergirl]

*What I find strangely interesting after reading all of the different materials, articles and so forth, on the scandals…is how internationally widespread this was. Granted, we know that this doesn’t only happen within the Catholic Church…it happens in other religions, in schools, in organizations where adults abuse their authority, etc.

But, just looking at the Catholic Church for a moment, I am just taken aback that this is an international issue, not just an issue confined to the U.S., as perhaps I thought, when the scandals first broke.

Praying for our Church…to weather these difficult storms. *

 

[FK04US]

Very sad indeed. I am not sure how worldwide this was, so far we have not heard of these problems in the Latin American churches-countries or the French ones, only in the anglo ones. Time to pray for our Church.

 

[Darryl1958]

*What I find strangely interesting after reading all of the different materials, articles and so forth, on the scandals…is how internationally widespread this was. Granted, we know that this doesn’t only happen within the Catholic Church…it happens in other religions, in schools, in organizations where adults abuse their authority, etc.

But, just looking at the Catholic Church for a moment, I am just taken aback that this is an international issue, not just an issue confined to the U.S., as perhaps I thought, when the scandals first broke.

Praying for our Church…to weather these difficult storms. *

The scandals broke out in Mount Cashel in Newflundland long before it came to the fore in America.

 

[rep140]

Very sad indeed. I am not sure how worldwide this was, so far we have not heard of these problems in the Latin American churches-countries or the French ones, only in the anglo ones. Time to pray for our Church.

Father Macial (sp?) the Mexican founder of the Legionaires of Christ fathered a child and abused seminarians. However, you are correct it does appear to be more of an Anglo thing.