Church failures
The Pope recently issued a letter castigating the Irish Church hierarchy for their laxness in preventing sexual and physical abuse against children by Priests and Nuns and also for covering up the crimes. He also made a kind of lame apology, but he fell short of telling the Bishops to report the crimes to the police. One Irish Bishop was forced to retire. It is now clear that for centuries the Catholic Church has been a cesspool of immoral and illegal mistreatment of children in many countries, including Ireland, Germany, France, Canada and the USA.
What are we to make of this fact? Especially since Christ is held up as a figure of ideal values in Christianity. It shows, as Judaism knows, that celibacy is unnatural and humans are imperfect. Simply giving a report of their "sins" to a confessor in no way absolves these criminal-priests of their guilt. They should be arrested and tried in a criminal court as anyone else would be. Already there have been successful indictments against priests in Canada, Ireland and Germany. The accusers have also won millions of dollars from the Church in various law suits. Although the Church is immensely rich, it is being bled by these cases and the Church in Ireland is said to be going bankrupt. And so far relatively few of those who were abused as youngsters have come forward. What is most disturbing is the way the Church hierarchy, including the Pope when he was a Cardinal in Germany, covered up the abuse and allowed the priests to continue their activities in other parishes.
I am not surprised by these reports, since I have had a jaundiced view of the Church since I learnt of the lack of any response to Hitler's actions by the Pope of the time, Pius XII, who was called "Hitler's Pope" in an excellent book by Anthony Cornwell. It shows that although the Pope acted in a political way (closing down the anti-Nazi German Christian Democratic Party that was largely Catholic as part of the Concordat with Hitler) he failed to act in a moral way. So much for Christ's representative on Earth. There have also been several scandals of the Vatican Bank, some years ago the Director of the Bank went missing and was found hanged under London Bridge in London! The case was never solved.
If I were a Catholic I would certainly be reconsidering the basis of my faith around now.
What are we to make of this fact? Especially since Christ is held up as a figure of ideal values in Christianity. It shows, as Judaism knows, that celibacy is unnatural and humans are imperfect. Simply giving a report of their "sins" to a confessor in no way absolves these criminal-priests of their guilt. They should be arrested and tried in a criminal court as anyone else would be. Already there have been successful indictments against priests in Canada, Ireland and Germany. The accusers have also won millions of dollars from the Church in various law suits. Although the Church is immensely rich, it is being bled by these cases and the Church in Ireland is said to be going bankrupt. And so far relatively few of those who were abused as youngsters have come forward. What is most disturbing is the way the Church hierarchy, including the Pope when he was a Cardinal in Germany, covered up the abuse and allowed the priests to continue their activities in other parishes.
I am not surprised by these reports, since I have had a jaundiced view of the Church since I learnt of the lack of any response to Hitler's actions by the Pope of the time, Pius XII, who was called "Hitler's Pope" in an excellent book by Anthony Cornwell. It shows that although the Pope acted in a political way (closing down the anti-Nazi German Christian Democratic Party that was largely Catholic as part of the Concordat with Hitler) he failed to act in a moral way. So much for Christ's representative on Earth. There have also been several scandals of the Vatican Bank, some years ago the Director of the Bank went missing and was found hanged under London Bridge in London! The case was never solved.
If I were a Catholic I would certainly be reconsidering the basis of my faith around now.
posted by Jack Cohen at 3:25 PM
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