Pope Benedict XVI has summoned more than two dozen Irish bishops to the Vatican for meetings to discuss Ireland’s massive clerical sex abuse scandal. The meetings, Monday and Tuesday, could lead to a major shake-up in the Irish Church hierarchy.
Two months ago, an investigation known as the Murphy Commission Report into the Dublin diocese revealed that the Irish Church had been covering up crimes by dozens of pedophile priests against hundreds of young people for decades.
The report came just seven months after another investigation revealed chronic beatings, rapes, near-starvation and humiliation of 30,000 children in state-run schools and orphanages all run by the Catholic Church.
Bishop Joseph Duffy, a spokesman for the Irish Bishops Conference, acknowledges that the meetings with the pope will have to lead to major changes in the Irish Church.
I hope that all faithful Anglicans who see swimming the Tiber as their salvation will keep this in mind. You can make a biblical case for women church leaders. But, you sure cannot make a case for the braod swath of sexual abuse present on the other side of the Tiber for decades. Regarding women, see the excellent biblical work of Canon Theologan of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh, Dr. Ken Bailey, formerly Canon Theologan of the Anglican Diocese of Cyprus and thhe Gulf. [url=http://http://www.theologymatters.com/baileykenneth.cfm]Women in the New Testiment, a Middle East Cultural View[/url]
Your in Christ,
NW Bob
Whoops! make that “broad swath”. Need more Monday morning coffee.
Bob
1) Your post insinuates that abuse happens only on one side of the Tiber, this is manifestly not the case.
2) You assume one should follow a calling based not on doctrine but on the sins of those who broke the rules….that would be like warning me away from the policeforce because some coppers are corrupt.
The situation is deeply lamentable. But it is from a time when many institutions were deeply lamentable and people, utterly disgracefully, swept such things under a carpet. I note that in the revelations some bishops DID inform the police only to be told to deal with it in house…but the media are not bashing the police in the same way.
4) Which leads to the point that the media are ensuring that the RC church gets a kicking for this. Probably that is fair but it does mean the picture may be skewed…
Using the “logic” of #1’s comments, one would be led to reject any
form of Christianity for fear of unsavory characters such as Judas
Iscariot. Taking it slightly further, one could question the wisdom
of the leader who selected Judas to be one of the apostles.
My thanks to rugbyplayingpriest and IchabodKunkleberry. I am one of those swimming the Tiber, but not because I either (1) am against “women church leaders” (which the Catholic Church actually has, just not in an ordained capacity) or (2) harbor any illusions about the moral perfection of all Catholic clergy throughout the Church’s history.
I think Northwest Bob’s point was not that sin happened by sinful leaders — but that there is something systemic and theologically false within the church which *caused and assisted the extensive coverup*.
I personally think that’s probably the case — but then I think that all church organizations of whatever stripe have things which are systemic and theologically false within them which cause and assist endemic forms of sin.
The difference is that, as a Protestant, I don’t have to be in a church that makes claims about itself that would seem to contradict NW Bob’s assertions.
I agree with Sarah and Bob. The very fact that RC church pastors and associates are appointed by the bishop without much, if any, parish input is problematic. There are the plum assignments and the assignments that are meant to teach a lesson.
Raised RC, I remember the collective breath-holding when new priests were assigned to our parish. Usually, the new priest/pastor was a stranger and the congregation simply had to hope he’d be appropriate, let alone effective. Looking back, maybe half of the priests who were at our parish when I was growing up remain in the RC priesthood. Some were involved in sex abuse scandals; others left to marry and quite a few had girlfriends/fathered children while still in the active priesthood.
This is the system that allowed the “problem priests” to be shuffled around and around again and inflicted on unknowing laity. Have they reformed this system at all? I certainly hope so. Yes, a very small percentage of RC priests are sexual predators but, because of the system, the small number produced a very high number of victims over the decades. Some molested dozens of young people each. That was/is a big problem.
Just to be clear — I’m rooting for the Roman Catholics and this Summit. I silently cheered with this article’s headline — I’m cautiously hopeful that “heads will roll” — for that is what is needed, and if anyone seems as if he might be willing to do an overhaul it appears to be this pope.
Though I am a Protestant — and therefore do not accept some of the claims or theology/dogma of the RC church — the very last thing I want is a weakened or further damaged RC church. I cringed when the news of these Irish reports hit — they are dreadful and utterly “unspinnable” and yes, it is very very damaging not only to the RCs but to all Christians [just as TEC nastiness is damaging to all Christians, though probably less so since we’re far less significant and far less stable too]. They are too valuable an ally in the cultural conflicts that are riddling our societies and countries and I wish them the best at dealing with this.
Whenever I read stories of the sins of Catholic clergy I am reminded of an old Catholic saying: “The proof that the Catholic Church is truly of God is that its clergy have not yet destroyed it.”
Nothing excuses the dereliction of duty of these bishops. But even the NY Times admitted years ago on its front page that public schools had a worse problem and for decades handled that problem the same way as the bishops–implying that all beauracracies of the time handled similar situations the same way. The schools called it “moving the trash along.”
The interesting thing, as far as I have read, is that the Times never again bothered to pay much attention to the public schools and their abuse problems. They were too busy salivating over the mess the bishops had made in the Catholic Church.