So how does the Church move forward? The Pope himself said,”The wounds caused by such acts (child abuse) run deep, and it is an urgent task to rebuild confidence and trust where these have been damaged. In your (the priests of Ireland) continuing efforts to deal effectively with this problem, it is important to establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring healing to the victims and to all those affected by these egregious crimes.”
Why pass the buck? Who would be better to take the lead on this rebuilding than the Pope himself? Voice of the Faithful, an organization formed in the wake of the Boston sex scandal, wrote in an open letter to Pope Benedict, “The time to act is now. The secrecy must come to an end. We are convinced that this programme cannot be speedily achieved in Ireland or elsewhere without the deployment of the full authority of your own office.”
The man at the head of the Catholic Church, the one who could potentially do something about this whole mess, continues to spout platitudes instead of ordering his underlings to expose all the lies and conspiracies. It would only take the power of Benedict’s office to change the meek words of an obviously reluctant Pope into a concrete, and necessarily harsh, policy of zero tolerance towards child abuse. He could easily make it a rule that all child molesters be immediately turned over to the secular authorities. The question is why doesn’t he?
5 Comments
Dear Alex,
Thank you for another great article. Everyone should call upon the Pope to make a rule that “all child molesters be immediately turned over to the secular authorities.”
Dear Readers,
Now is an appropriate time for me to ask those of you who feel betrayed by the church to come forward now. Please visit http://www.CCOCommission.org.
it is my opinion that until the offenders are made answerable to secular authorities, there will continue to be touchers disguised as priests.
please tell me that the CCOCommish is AGAINST touchers!
CCOC is against everything that is bad!
Like in Corporate America, the man at the top has to take the praising along with the criticism. The Roman Catholic Church is a huge International Corporation. The safety and preservation of the Corporation to stay in power comes before anything else as clearly demonstrated by his Holiness, the Pope. He should be indicted on criminal charges along with much of the other Hierarchy. That’s exactly what would happen in Corporate America. Why should the Roman Catholic Church be any different?