I've told my parishioners not to try to defend the Church in this crisis. If someone puts you into a defensive posture, simply tell them, this his horrible, evil and indefensible and only God can clean it up and He is and will continue to do so. It's judgement day and God's light is shining hot!
Press this title for a good commentary:
Press this title for a good commentary:
Abuse Crisis: In Defending the Church, Dump These Excuses
It’s understandable to want to stick up for those we love, even when we know they’re in the wrong. And because we love the Catholic Church, currently reeling from a new round of sexual abuse reports, we naturally want to …
5 comments:
The most cogent analysis I've seen so far:
http://www.lmschairman.org/2018/08/vigano-and-pyramid-of-lies.html
Lord have mercy. And some people think the Church is not in crisis?
MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) — Two Chicago-area priests were charged Monday with Lewd and Lascivious behavior and Indecent Exposure after being caught performing a sexual act inside a car parked on a Miami Beach street.
https://miami.cbslocal.com/2018/09/04/priests-arrested-miami-beach-sex-acts-in-car/
I strongly disagree that ‘only’ God can fix this if by that we mean we do nothing but wring our hands. Unless, of course, we are holding a bishop by the neck.
Now that they have been caught, an investigation into their contacts should be conducted to see if other clergy are involved, and to see if any altar-boys or students were involved.
The following from the article doesn't make sense to me:
"It’s understandable to want to stick up for those we love, even when we know they’re in the wrong. And because we love the Catholic Church, currently reeling from a new round of sexual abuse reports, we naturally want to – at least we should want to – come to her aid.
"However, love for our faith has produced in many an almost kneejerk defensiveness, prompting an understandable but misguided and overdone effort to stick up for the Church.
"Things are much better now, many of us are now saying; clerical sex abuse is largely a thing of the past; it’s not just priests who are guilty of it; certain secular opponents of Catholicism are exploiting the abuse in order to throw rocks at us. That sort of thing.
"This is all well meaning, but it doesn’t help the Church. There are some particularly common defensive responses to the horrid sex abuse scandal that we need to keep in check:
"Most Catholic priests are not molesters, and most molesters are not priests, so the situation is being overblown.
"Yes, the statistics behind this argument are true."
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In regard to defending Holy Mother Church...
-- "This is all well meaning, but it doesn't help the Church."
Huh? Defending the Church against the hatred that has been hurled at Her, from without and, most horrifically, from within, doesn't help the Church? That is preposterous.
-- "...the situation is being overblown." "Most Catholic priests are not molesters, and most molesters are not priests, so the situation is being overblown. "Yes, the statistics behind this argument are true."
Correct. Then why should we not defend to the hilt Holy Mother Church when we know that the "situation is being overblown...and that "the statistics behind this argument are true"?
The 1Peter5 article in question doesn't make sense.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
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