As Germany–the pope’s own homeland–continues to be rocked by allegations of priestly abuse, many are wondering how high the scandal will go–after all, Pope Benedict XVI himself, as archbishop of Munich, approved an abuser’s therapy treatment without reporting it to authorities, though he claims not to have known about the abuse. Meanwhile, the pope’s attempt to put out a similar fire in Ireland with a letter this past weekend is stirring mixed reactions.
All this has convinced some commentators that this controversy is different from the American abuse scandal. In fact, some have begun to ask whether the Vatican–and even Catholicism itself–will pass through unscathed. If so, will it still resemble the Catholic Church of old?
The Church will be scathed. She will be wounded. She will be villified. She will be scorned. She will be condemned. She will be found faulty (with cause at times). She most probably will even be martyred upon the altar of moral relativism and other secular gods.
But such is the nature of the war against the world, the flesh and the devil. The enemies within and without will do their damndest to lay the grevious sins of her members at her feet. They use the truth of the horrors of this scandal to advance the lie that for the sake of justice and civilization the Church must fall. They know that all faithful Christians stand against their vision for the world. And utopias have no mercy for those who remind the chosen that their hems are stained with mud.
The Church and all of Christianity will survive the scandal of sinners in their midst because our hope has never been in frail man but in Lord Jesus Christ.
Ugh. This is an ugly article, that to me reaks with anti-Catholic bias and venom. Remember, as the article itself points out, Andrew Sullivan writes for this media outlet.
I’m sure you’re ultimately right, Paula (#1). But I fear that the Catholic Church is in for a hard time in Europe for the forseeable future.
But after a painful time of pruning, I hope it will bear more fruit in the long term (ala John 15).
David Handy+