Colm O'Gorman: Papal letter was a disgraceful deceit
Pope Pius V said that priests who abused children were to be stripped of the priesthood and handed over to the civil authorities
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Independent Minds
Pope Benedict XVI published his letter to the Irish church on the issue of child abuse on Saturday. What was necessary seemed clear. He had to acknowledge the cover up of the rape and abuse of children by priests, to take responsibility for it, and to show how he would ensure it never happened again.
But the letter failed to do any of that. There was no acceptance of responsibility for the now-established cover up, no plan to ensure that children will be properly protected around the global church, and no assurance that those who rape and abuse will be reported to the civil authorities.
The letter is clearly an effort to restore the credibility of a church rocked by the publication of three state investigations into clerical crimes and church over ups in Ireland. The Pope has seen all three of these reports.
And yet, disgracefully, he used his letter and this issue to attack one of his favourite targets, secularisation. We are asked to believe that the secularisation of Irish society led to abuse and cover up. In fact, it is the secularisation of society that finally led to the exposure of the crimes of the church.
The most horrific abuse was perpetrated, not in a secularised Ireland, but at a time when Irish society was dominated, socially and politically, by the Catholic Church. That the Pope appears to have wilfully ignored this established fact is a blatant and disgraceful deceit.
Some have reported that the Pope issued a heartfelt apology to victims of abuse. In fact, the word 'sorry' appeared just once in a letter running to almost 4,700 words.
The Pope said he was "truly sorry" that victims had suffered. But an expression of sorrow is not the same as an acceptance of responsibility. The letter does go some way to express remorse. But why is it impossible for this Vicar of Christ on earth to name truth in simple, unambiguous terms? Is that really too much to ask?
The Pope's letter has been described as "unprecedented" and an important step forward by the Vatican in dealing with clerical child sexual abuse. It is neither. Just consider an earlier Papal decree addressing the issue of catholic clergy abusing children.
In his papal order Horrendum, Pope Pius V said that priests who abused children were to be stripped of the priesthood, deprived of all income and privileges and handed over to the civil authorities.
Pretty strong stuff, especially when one considers that it was issued in 1568. And far stronger than anything the current Pope was able to muster in his letter. Strip away some worthy and welcome sentiments, consider the issues ignored and all that remains is a constant concern for the preservation of the institutional church – and little real concern for the safety of children.
Colm O'Gorman is the author of the memoir 'Beyond Belief'. www.colmogorman.com
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Comments
Still we could all follow the Popes request and return to the church and the religion which abused us and denied us justice for so long - we could then forgive them and therefore there would be no crimes to be concerned about. Must be many victims and observers who see the hypocrisy in that. "all that remains is a constant concern for the preservation of the institutional church � and little real {no] concern for the safety of children [and the restoration of their lives]."
No Huw, we will be silent.
Respecting the glory of the sacrament
Celebrated for a man
More powerful than his flock,
Deceased and lost in a blizzard of souls.
No Huw, we will be silent.
Burying our beloved John Paul
Tending to funeral rites
For the faithful departed,
Averting our eyes from the wounds of the severed faithful.
No Huw, we will be silent
Concealing the truth in figures and tables;
Deceased,
No further action,
Taken or required.
No Huw, we will be silent.
And in that silence we will not hear
The keening of children
Imprisoned in adult bodies,
Unable to run free.
Thursday 25th October 2007
�No Huw, we will be silent� is a poem based on an adaptation of the
words of Archbishop Vincent Nichols during his commentary for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, uttered in response to News Reader Huw Edwards� request for an explanation about an important aspect of the funeral ceremony.
I have linked these words to my own experience of the Archbishop�s response to my revelation of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of our parish priest in the 1970s. I think his words sum up the true response of the RC church to survivors and their experiences. They are not healing or compassionate words, they are not words spoken in readiness for understanding and true hearing but a command for silence. Ultimately they are a denial of the truth of our suffering, spoken from an unassailable position of power. The mis-use of power is the bedrock of abuse.
Where is justice?
The pope distances himself from the problem when he says, "the task you now face is to address the problem of abuse that has occurred within the Irish community...."
While the pope mentions "this grievous wound," and to "acknowledge before the Lord and before others the serious sins committed against defenceless children," he does not acknowledge them as the crimes against the humanity of children which they truly are.
As far as I can find, the pope only uses the word, "crime" once in his pastoral letter to description of the sexual abuse of a child.
After distancing himself by using the phrase, "your country," the pope then goes attempts to place the blame on "priests and religious," whom he accuses of adopting "ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel."
Then he appears to blame the "programme of renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council," which, according to the pope, "was sometimes misinterpreted and indeed, in the light of the profound social changes that were taking place, it was far from easy to know how best to implement it. In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations. It is in this overall context that we must try to understand the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings."
Talk about disturbing!
The pope goes on to talk about "the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings."
Odd, but I thought that the "weakening of faith," "loss of respect," etc., had a more direct cause and effect relationship to the terrible, self serving way the hierarchy mishandled the "problem."
I could be wrong but I don't think so. I don't think there will be "a clear-sighted diagnosis" as long as the real causes and the hierarchy's responsibility continues to be mitigated.
The pope mentions, "existing canonical penalties." What about the failure to apply existing criminal and civil penalties, laws, while safeguarding "the dignity of every person," as the Holy See pledged to do in its signing its name to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?
On page 6: But what concrete steps toward accountability have actually been taken? Of the bishops especially?
Yes, it is "hard to forgive or be reconciled with the Church," but is it not more correct to say that it is the institutional Roman Catholic Church that needs to be reconciled with the victims?
The church in the collective person of the hierarchy, needs to see reconciliation.
On page 8: The pope speaks of priests and religious who have abused children.
Why does the pope continue to address these perverted individuals as "priests" and "religious" in the present tense?
They should not be priests or religious. They should be removed from the priesthood and the religious life.
To my knowledge, not one priest or religious has been denied reception of Holy Communion much less excommunicated for such grievous violations and crimes against children to say nothing of mortal sins.
Again there is an excessive concern expressed about "damage" done to the institution and the public "perception of the priesthood and religious life."
On page 12: Attempts are made once again to mitigate the responsibility of the bishops.
"Grave errors in judgment?" No, crimes were committed by bishops.
These crimes are sometimes called a conspiracy to commit a crime, a felony, reckless endangerment, facilitating a crime, and a host of other terms in other jurisdictions.
"Cooperate?" How about the directing the bishops to obey the laws of the government regarding Childhood Sexual Abuse within the jurisdictions of their dioceses?
The faithful, of course, are enjoined once again to "play their proper part."
"The lay faithful, too, should be encouraged to play their proper part in the life of the Church. See that they are formed in such a way that they can offer an articulate and convincing account of the Gospel in the midst of modern society (cf. 1 Pet 3:15) and cooperate more fully in the Church�s life and mission. This in turn will help you once again become credible leaders and witnesses to the redeeming truth of Christ."
"Credible leaders?"
That will be a long time in coming, if ever, and that may not be such a bad idea.
Quick thoughts:
Never once in his pastoral letter does the pope refer to any structural problems that could lem" as he calls it and certainly no mention of any systemic or endemic causes.
And so it goes.
Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com
And people who find idiotic excuses to forgive these"men of faith and honor" should visit a shrink.
What do you expect? The religion of which he is the head is not based on simple, unambiguous truths, but on the very opposite - on convoluted and elaborate falsehoods. How can anyone who believes in - or at least preaches - the literal truth of the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the Ascension, transubstantiation and all the other preposterous metaphysical nonsense of the Christian faith actually be relied upon to even KNOW the truth, let alone SPEAK it?
"all that remains is a constant concern for the preservation of the institutional church"
Once again, what did you expect? The Roman Catholic Church has been around for almost 2000 years; it is the oldest continuously run institution in the world. It didn't get to survive this long without becoming extremely good at the art of self-preservation! And the RC Church is all about POWER - economic power, demographic power and political power, and of course it is going to put the maintenance of this power above any other concern.
I really do find it odd that anyone could be at all surprised by anything that the Pope or the Vatican has said or done concerning this child abuse scandal; they have behaved exactly as I would have expected, and could have predicted - i.e. with cowardice, secrecy, blame-deflection, denial and deceit.
And it is my ardent wish that, as a result of this disgusting and disgraceful display, the faithful will finally have the veil lifted from their eyes, and will see their church and its leaders for what they really are; a thoroughly sinister, corrupt and self-serving institution run by a bunch of conmen, gangsters and sexual deviants in fancy vestments and funny hats! (And they are ALL sexual deviants, because celibacy is as unnatural a distortion of normal human sexuality as paedophilia - and, going on the available evidence, it seems that the former can often lead to the latter.)
a bullshit religion has a bullshit penance
Gallaher is a tobacco company and mostly employs Christians. Christians subvert the truth and cover up for other Christians. Gallaher has a culture of subverting the truth and covering up for each other.
kyran collum karen orchin bill wilson derek silver barbra smith mccall felicity clarke melanie coombe justine holdsworth john hudson errol grafton sarah boyce nicky chippendale shireen lam christine humphrey sheena orchin ivan orchin bob jones brendan conyard fiona mckinnon phil turner joan moore
consider how many millions of people have died (from aids) due to his "teachings"on how condoms spread aids?
this makes him the most murderous man ever.
how can a man so evil still be such a position of power ...has the world gone mad.