The Pope's visit
The Pope's visit to Britain was historic and it was a media event. It was theater, with the Pope dressed all in white against the constrast of the Bishops who were in Black, what a charade. And the Pope uttered more platitudes than any other person I have ever heard (except maybe some fellow politicians). But, it was also a time for re-assessment of Catholicism.
In Belgium, at the same time as the visit to Britain, the police raided the offices of the Catholic organization tasked with gathering internal information about child abuse. They found that in every Parish in every school and in every Catholic institution in Belgium there was evidence of child abuse, sexual and physical. In some cases it amounted to torture. Yet, this was allowed to continue for decades, and when cases were reported, first the guilty party, priest, nun or schoolteacher, was transferred and given the opportunity to pray for forgiveness, and the information was kept secret and not passed onto the State authorities as was required by law. In one case a Bishop admitted molesting his nephew for years, but was taken into hiding by the Church authorities. The same things have been found in Ireland, Canada, the US, Germany and so on.
Two things were historic about the Pope's visit to Britain, the first was that it was the first State visit to Britain by a Pope and the first time that a Pope prayed in Westminster Abbey side by side with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Head of the Anglican Church. The other historic event was that the Pope admitted the "unspeakable" treatment of children within the Church, admitted guilt and asked for forgiveness. For many who had been abused this was not enough, such a general admittance and a request for prayer for the victims was hardly considered sufficient. A demonstration of some 10,000 people, with various causes, but mainly including those protesting the reaction of the Pope to this terrible travesty, marched through the center of London. However, they were out-numbered by gatherings of the faithful, who conveniently ignored these failings of the Church to celebrate Mass with the Pope.
Those of us who are not Catholic find it impossible to imagine accepting a Church in which such widespread corruption has been tolerated and is endemic. Apart from this, the basic idea that the wine and the wafer consumed at the Mass are in fact the actual blood and body of Christ is nauseating. And no, they don't accept that these items are symbolic, a long and deep rift between Catholicism and Protestantism was fought over the significance of the terms consubstantiation and transubstantiation. Such are the idiocies of religion.
In Belgium, at the same time as the visit to Britain, the police raided the offices of the Catholic organization tasked with gathering internal information about child abuse. They found that in every Parish in every school and in every Catholic institution in Belgium there was evidence of child abuse, sexual and physical. In some cases it amounted to torture. Yet, this was allowed to continue for decades, and when cases were reported, first the guilty party, priest, nun or schoolteacher, was transferred and given the opportunity to pray for forgiveness, and the information was kept secret and not passed onto the State authorities as was required by law. In one case a Bishop admitted molesting his nephew for years, but was taken into hiding by the Church authorities. The same things have been found in Ireland, Canada, the US, Germany and so on.
Two things were historic about the Pope's visit to Britain, the first was that it was the first State visit to Britain by a Pope and the first time that a Pope prayed in Westminster Abbey side by side with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Head of the Anglican Church. The other historic event was that the Pope admitted the "unspeakable" treatment of children within the Church, admitted guilt and asked for forgiveness. For many who had been abused this was not enough, such a general admittance and a request for prayer for the victims was hardly considered sufficient. A demonstration of some 10,000 people, with various causes, but mainly including those protesting the reaction of the Pope to this terrible travesty, marched through the center of London. However, they were out-numbered by gatherings of the faithful, who conveniently ignored these failings of the Church to celebrate Mass with the Pope.
Those of us who are not Catholic find it impossible to imagine accepting a Church in which such widespread corruption has been tolerated and is endemic. Apart from this, the basic idea that the wine and the wafer consumed at the Mass are in fact the actual blood and body of Christ is nauseating. And no, they don't accept that these items are symbolic, a long and deep rift between Catholicism and Protestantism was fought over the significance of the terms consubstantiation and transubstantiation. Such are the idiocies of religion.
posted by Jack Cohen at 8:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home