To sighs of relief, Pope Benedict is distancing himself from members of the Curia who are blaming a vast secular conspiracy for the European chapter of the sex abuse crisis. On a plane to Portugal and speaking off the cuff with reporters, B16 said, “The greatest persecution of the church does not come from the enemies outside, but is born from sin inside the church.” If you know anything about this pope’s ecclesiology, which tends to lean toward “spotless bride of Christ,” that’s quite a thing for him to say, and a terrific first step in overcoming the denial that possesses certain members of the Roman Curia.
Better still is Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schornborn’s calling out of Cardinal Angelo Sodano’s dismissal of sex abuse allegations as “petty gossip.” Sodano’s obstruction of investigations against the former archbishop of Vienna, Hans Hermann Groer, and against Legionaries founder Marcial Maciel deserve further attention.
These are good first steps . . .
Related Off-site Links:
Pope’s Clearest Message Yet in Abuse - Stacy Meichtry (Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2010).
Pope Issues His Most Direct Words to Date on Abuse Crisis - Rachel Donadio (New York Times, May 12, 2010).
Some Really, Really Interesting Words from Benedict. Really - Colleen Kochivar-Baker (Enlightened Catholicism, May 11, 2010).
In his own way, of course, Schoenborn is just as bad as Sodano. But what's even more hilarious is the hapless Fr. Fessio's attempts to defuse the situation by blaming (suprise, surprise!) the media for over-hyping Schoenborn's comments.
ReplyDeleteI guess you have to take Benedict's statement as a step forward, but I'm still cynical enough to suspect that this "contrition" is just an end-run around looking at the structures of clericalism and hierarchical tyranny that are at the root of this rot.
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