{"id":295,"date":"2010-03-14T06:44:37","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T12:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/?p=295"},"modified":"2010-03-14T06:44:37","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T12:44:37","slug":"german-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/german-reactions-295.htm","title":{"rendered":"German Reactions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the abuse that has been revealed in Germany is neither as widespread or as deeply corrupt as the abuse that was revealed in the U.S. and Ireland (let me simply say that some priests found novel uses for the Eucharist and the crucifix), the revelations in Germany have shaken the Vatican more than the news from the \u201cEnglish-speaking\u201d countries, as one cardinal dismissed them.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Matthias Drobinski has a good commentary in the S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung <\/em>to explain the severity of the German reaction. He concludes:<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Die Kirche ist nicht in die Vertrauenskrise geraten, weil sie ein Verein von Missbrauchern ist. Sie ist in der Krise, weil sie sich immer noch st\u00e4rker selbst bemitleidet, statt den Opfern zu helfen, zum Beispiel mit einem Entsch\u00e4digungsfonds. Sie ist in der Krise, weil sie nicht zugeben will, dass der Priester- und Ordensberuf M\u00e4nner mit sexuellem Identit\u00e4tsproblem anzieht. Es ist eine Krise, die das gesamte Land angeht, weil in der Kirche bislang eine N\u00e4he und W\u00e4rme m\u00f6glich war, die anderswo in der Gesellschaft knapp geworden ist. Dieses knappe Gut k\u00f6nnte sie nun verspielen. Auch da ist nun der Papst gefragt.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Church does not suffer from a crisis of confidence because it is a society of abusers. It is in a crisis, because it ever more strongly pities itself, instead of helping the victims, for example with a fund for damages. It is in a crisis, because it willl not admit that the priestly and religious life attracts men with problems of sexual idenity. It is in a crisis that concerns the whole country, because until now in the Church were possible a neighborliness and warmth that scarcely exist elsewhere in society.\u00a0 <\/span>This good, which is in short supply, can now be lost.\u00a0 <\/span>And now the Pope is questioned.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Vatican\u2019s touchy reaction, which tries to make the Pope look like a victim, is understandable but wrong-headed.\u00a0 <\/span>The Pope, even if he is being unfairly criticized, is not the victim: the abused children are the victims.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although the abuse that has been revealed in Germany is neither as widespread or as deeply corrupt as the abuse that was revealed in the U.S. and Ireland (let me simply say that some priests found novel uses for the Eucharist and the crucifix), the revelations in Germany have shaken the Vatican more than the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,28,63],"tags":[1153,1120],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clergy-sex-abuse","category-sexual-abuse","category-vatican","tag-pope-benedict","tag-sexual-abuse","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}