(Reuters)
- Pope Francis wants the Catholic Church to "act decisively"
to root out sexual abuse of children by priests and ensure the
perpetrators are punished, the Vatican said on Friday.
I hope this is true. It's hard
enough to defend my faith anyway, but when the first words out of
every detractor's mouth have to do with predatory pedophiles in the
priesthood it's impossible. There is no satisfactory reply that
defuses this bomb of the Church's own devising and makes it possible
to discuss Catholic theology on it's merits. No one seems to be able
to get past it, and I'm not sure they should.
There are probably darker periods
in Church history. The Spanish Inquisition comes to mind, as does the
second Borgia Pope, Alexander VI. Still, this modern chapter of the
Church's failure to live up to it's charter is unique in the
innocence of its victims, and that's what everyone is understandably
upset about.
Pope Francis has an opportunity
to make amends of sorts. I don't think this can ever be set right,
but it can certainly be stopped in its tracks and prevented in the
future. That's the very least the Church can and should do.
No comments:
Post a Comment