Word: pope
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...father of a son who, five years ago, on the eve of his first communion, asked me what clerical sexual abuse was, I'm as gratified as any Catholic that Pope Benedict XVI confronted the issue as strongly as he did during his U.S. visit. And yet, as the celestial glow and the cable news giddiness wear off, most U.S. Catholics will still be angry at the church over the scandal; most still won't adhere to church teaching on issues like birth control, homosexuality, divorce, female ordination and the death penalty; and most still won't believe you have...
Cardinal William Levada, a high-ranking Vatican official whom Pope Benedict XVI hand-picked to succeed him in his old job as head of the Vatican's doctrinal office, offered early signs on Friday that the Vatican will change its internal, or canon, laws concerning the church's response to sexual abuse allegations - a matter that has become the main topic of the Pope's American visit. The changes would follow adjustments made some time ago involving the church's statute of limitations with regard to some particularly egregious offenses. The Cardinal suggested that laws meriting amendment may involve statutes...
Levada's comments flowed out of a discussion initiated by this reporter's question regarding the Pope: having been so forthcoming about the abuse scandal during this trip, would he address one of its more disturbing aspects, by sanctoning supervisors and even bishops who had "aided and abetted" the crimes? Levada responded that cases would have to be judged individually: "I would want to see the situations that we'd be talking about," he said. "I personally do not accept that there is a broad base of bishops who are guilty of 'aiding and abetting' pedophiles...
David Cloughessy, national director of the victim's organization SNAP (for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), has been skeptical of any substantive change based on the Pope's admission of shame over the scandal, or his meeting with several victims. Levada's comments, says Cloughessy, were "a step beyond 'I feel badly about it' and a step below actually taking action...
...more than knowledge," he commented. "Only in faith can truth become incarnate and reason truly human." And "the truths of faith and reason never contradict one another." There may be some Catholic educators who have trouble with that simple equation. But for now, they're probably happy that the Pope is bandying words rather than taking action...