3 hours to touchdown...
Pope says he is 'deeply ashamed' of clergy abuse scandal
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON,
Associated Press
Posted: 2008-04-15 12:07:42
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday he was "deeply ashamed" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church and will work to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood, addressing the toughest issue facing the American church as he began his first papal trip to the United States.Benedict spoke in English on a special Alitalia flight from Rome to Washington, answering questions submitted by reporters in advance."It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the church in general and for me personally that this could happen," Benedict said. "It is difficult for me to understand how it was possible that priests betray in this way their mission ... to these children.""I am deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible so this cannot happen again in the future," the pope said.Benedict pledged that pedophiles would not be priests in the Catholic Church."We will absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry," Benedict said. "It is more important to have good priests than many priests. [Amen!]We will do everything possible to heal this wound."
Please, Papa, start by removing complicit Bishops who knew, looked the other way, and reassigned these "troublesome" priests to other parishes. In my smallish Southern Tier/Finger Lakes community, my sources tell me that THREE such priests were reassigned, apparently with the thought that by banishing them to the furthest (and less populated) areas of his realm, Bp. Clark could remove them from the closer scrutiny they'd received in his seat of Rochester.
THREE. In a 4-county area with less than 250,000 residents/50,000 Catholics/11 parishes-parish clusters. One of these priests - AFTER being reassigned following allegations of sexual misconduct - was placed in charge of a parish with an elementary school on the grounds. Fortunately, he was busted for online child porn before he harmed any child (that we know of) here.
Things that make you wonder?
4 days ago
7 comments:
Ah, the good old diocese of Rochester. :-( That kind of thing is so scary.
You know, with all the colleges up there, you'd think they could reassign the priests to somewhere that they wouldn't be near children. Or to, say, a cloistered monastery where they wouldn't see the light of day nor any children nor even the postman until **after their trials had been completed.** Oh, yeah, because the reassignment would only be temporary until after the courts decided the person's guilt or innocence. :-b
*sigh* It stinks, but I know that any of us could dedicate the rest of our lives to improving the name of the Church and we wouldn't be able to undo the damage that any one of those bishops did by shuffling accused priests around.
Amen to that...
I really, really hope that he (B16) starts to move on these issues and shakes up the hierarchy here, makes some transfers, forces some resignations, that kind of thing, now that he's three years into his pontificate. I've been hoping he'll address the scandal head-on during at least one of his addresses while he's here, too. He did it before he even touched down, so perhaps that's a preview?
And naturally, I will be at the office for the rest of the week (I was home yesterday and today) and will have to rely on the news for highlights of the addresses...
I don't think he will do anything while he is in America although I bet he has some things to say-but he will be able to see stuff up close and personal that maybe he isn't aware of yet.
I wonder about the bishops and Cardinals who are so obviously, well, apostate-can he shift them? Who is there to replace them?
I think he will do things behind closed doors - he has some private meetings with the bishops while he's here. I think there are plenty of eligible potential bishops right there with him in Rome. When we lived in San Diego, he (behind the scenes for JPII) sent a brilliant young theologean/canon lawyer from Rome, now Aux. Bishop Cordileone, when the scandal was hitting the papers. He has made positive changes in San Diego - and he happened to be a native San Diegan. I suspect there are many others like him, who've had their formative years closely supervised, who will slowly replace the current generation here. While I can't confirm this, I've heard that Bp. Clark has been encouraged through channels to resign, but has refused.
My heart goes out to you in New York. I grew up in Rochester and moved to Michigan in the late 80's after college. Much of what has happened the past few decades saddens me, esp. since my family belonged to the Cathedral parish at Sacred Heart. I keep up on what's happening from my family that is still in Rochester, along with Rich Leonardi's blog. It's important to remember that Christ is still in charge, and he's left a very capable man in charge. This is a time of purification, and while it is painful now, we have hope that the Church in America will be stronger once the dust settles and the smoke clears.
Until then, we must continue to pray and keep shining the light of Truth.
I like your blog, by the way.
Thanks for stopping by, Larry - I just started perusing your blog, too - what a hoot, and that's just up top!
Thanks for the link!!
Post a Comment