I recently read Daniel Quinn’s novel After Dachau. It is a cleverly done piece of alternate history: its premise (warning – spoiler!) is that the Nazis won the war, but the reader does not realize this until he is well into the novel.
I won’t go into all the details, but we learn that time dated A.D., After Dachau, where the great hero Adolf Hitler defeated the Jews.
Someone discovers what really happened, and tries to alert people. But what he learns for his pains is that NO ONE CARES.
I often feel that way about the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. A handful of people do care, but the Vatican realizes that even in the developed world, very few care, and the typical Catholic is a South American or African peasant who has not even heard of the sexual abuse crisis, and in any case is facing problems even more urgent, such as starvation, massacres, and persecution.
Pope Francis may say the right things – after all, who will defend child molestation? – but will he do the right thing? His record in Argentina does not look promising.
Did the new pope’s visit to Cardinal Bernard Law’s basilica signal concern for the sexually abused?
AW
God cares. At some point, they will look upon Him whom they have pierced. Whatever they did to the little ones, they did to Him. And the hidden community of victims cares. Most everyone else folds it into some agenda.
I will wait and see if he is capable of cleaning the church of abusers and enables.
IF ANYONE CAN CLEAN UP THE MESS, HE IS SURELY THE ONLY ONE!!
If it is true that he has been protecting a molester, then it is very serious. It will not remain in the shadows for long. A lot of people who do care are trusting bishopaccountability.org to bring the truth to light.
Speaking as someone who does not refer to an inclusive conciliar Bible.
I believe only God can and will clean up the mess. Jesus told us in the End it will be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah and asked if He would find any Faith left on earth .( According to commentaries from Early Church Fathers ,Our Lord was referencing the fact that even priests would become perverted .)
I am not impressed with the over stated Press commentaries on humility,
love of the poor and minging with the populace. I want to see some positive action taken to clean out clerical corruption.
“But during most of the 14 years that Bergoglio served as archbishop of Buenos Aires, rights advocates say, he did not take decisive action to protect children or act swiftly when molestation charges surfaced; nor did he extend apologies to the victims of abusive priests after their misconduct came to light.
“He has been totally silent,” said Ernesto Moreau, a member of Argentina’s U.N.-affiliated Permanent Assembly for Human Rights and a lawyer who has represented victims in a clergy sexual-abuse case. Victims asked to meet with Bergoglio but were turned down, Moreau said. “In that regard, Bergoglio was no different from most of the other bishops in Argentina, or the Vatican itself.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/pope-francis-was-often-quiet-on-argentine-sex-abuse-cases-as-archbishop/2013/03/18/26e7eca4-8ff6-11e2-9cfd-36d6c9b5d7ad_story.html
Will anyone care or do anything about this, or will ‘gay rights’ and the agenda to normalize the lifestyle, promote gay marriage, adoption and boy scouts win the day in the church and world?
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/catholic-church-scotland-covered-up-1782068
If Francis doesn’t deliver than I think I will have to just conclude that we must carry on like Catholics did during other periods of papal corruption. They put their trust entirely in God and His Christ and Holy Spirit. The pope was a religious authority to be obeyed when he ordered what was reasonable and listened to when he taught out of the deposit of faith. Otherwise we will strive to be faithful in the corner God gives us, relying on God’s grace and professing what has been believed “semper, ubique et ad omnibus”.
Fr Michael , I know many Catholics who have been living like this for decades now.They have no place to go to Mass and some fathers even celebrate Masses of Remembrance for the sake of their children.
These are people who are very knowledgeable about the private lives of the clergy in their Diocese and not just ‘Pre Vatican 2 Traditionalists’ or “sedevacantists” as they are sometimes labeled in a derogative sense.
We got the best possible Cardinal to be our new Pope. Let us be positive and support him in his efforts to reform the clergy! Watch the Borgias season 2 and 3 if you want to see just how bad things were in the Vatican at that time.
I’m praying for him Oso and encourage the people of my parish to do the same. I really do hope for the best and wish him very well.
As a followup to Leon’s post about Bergoglio’s record in dealing with pedo-priests in Argentina, I offer these two detailed stories from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/pope-francis-was-often-quiet-on-argentine-sex-abuse-cases-as-archbishop/2013/03/18/26e7eca4-8ff6-11e2-9cfd-36d6c9b5d7ad_print.html
and
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-03-19/world/37835664_1_jorge-mario-bergoglio-clergy-abuse-priests-face
There’s more than enough here to justify continued skepticism about what the Vatican will do about the global abuse scandal.
I hope that Bishop Accountability archives these stories before they disappear behind the WaPo paywall … or into some other memory hole.
Lee
Father Michael, if Francis doesn’t deliver, we can conclude that the corruption within Catholicism is so pervasive and entrenched that it is effectively apostate. Remember, Jesus went to the Temple twice to drive out the money-changers. Remember, also, that the money-changers’ bosses (both religious and political, since the Romans appointed the high priest) put Jesus on the cross. The whole corrupt system wasn’t destroyed until 70 A.D.
Coincidence? I think not…..
Besides, who’s to say it can’t happen again?