http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/11612
News Brief
Addressing the global Catholic sex abuse scandal
By Bridget Mary Meehan
26 Mar 2010
“Cry out as if you had a million voices, it is silence that kills the world,” said St Catherine of Siena (25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a courageous reformer who lived at a time of grave scandal when three men, each claiming to be the pope, shook the church to its foundation.
Today Catholics live in a time when the institutional church has lost credibility because of the cover-up of a global sex abuse scandal which, like a rapidly spreading cancer, is destroying the moral fibre of our church.
Like St Catherine, we, the people, need to speak truth to our church leaders including our bishops and our pope. Silence is compliance.
Roman Catholics can no longer be silent about the thousands of victims throughout Europe and around the world who were sexually assaulted by Catholic clergy.
The growing number of allegations of sexual abuse in Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands indicate that the cover-up of crimes against children and youth in the Catholic Church goes all the way to the Pope and the Vatican.
In the United States the sex abuse scandal has destroyed the lives of victims and their families, bankrupted some dioceses and cost the Church over two billion dollars. Approximately two-thirds of sitting US bishops were alleged in 2002 to have kept accused priests in ministry or moved them to new assignments. Nineteen bishops in the United States have been accused of sexual abuse (http://www.bishop-accountability.org/).
The Vatican's record on child abuse was criticised at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on 16 March 16 2010.
Pope Benedict, the former Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich, has been linked to the case of a German priest convicted of molesting children but allowed to continue to minister in Ratzinger’s archdiocese for more than 30 years until his recent suspension.
Later, as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger was in charge of reviewing sexual abuse cases for the Vatican. The cases were handled under a strict code of pontifical secrecy.
The Vatican has handled more than 3,000 cases, according to its own report. Since Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, is implicated in the handling of the cases, it is surely right that the civil authorities should investigate the alleged cover-up to assure that transparency and justice is achieved.
Catholics should call on the all-male leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, especially those in the Vatican, to admit their failures, including the abuse of power at the center of this crisis. Catholics should call for the resignation of bishops who covered-up sex abuse. Standards of accountability must be the norm for all, including the pope and the hierarchy.
What is needed now is an independent truth commission made up of a broad representation of people of integrity, including victims of abuse and the non-ordained, to examine this global sexual abuse crisis and to chart a path forward to structural change - a change which would include women priests and married priests, with an end to mandatory celibacy.
Now more than ever our Church needs the wisdom and experience of women to re-birth a renewed community of equals empowered by the Spirit. Roman Catholic Womenpriests offer a collaborative model of an inclusive Church rooted in partnership with the people we serve, with no one excluded.
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(c) Bridget Mary Meehan is a spokesperson for Roman Catholic Womenpriests (http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/), and ministers herself in the southern region of the USA. She is a widely published author and has produced television programmes on prayer, spirituality, and women's issues. This feature is adapted from a syndicated article.
8 comments:
Bridget Mary,
You said this scandal is destroying the moral fiber of "our" Church.
I can agree that the scandal is destroying the moral fiber of the Roman Catholic Church, but you say "our" Church as if you are in communion with it.
Your group is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church it is in schism, Bridget Mary. The Roman Catholic Church does not have the authority to ordain women, and it is that teaching among others that your organization protests. You can easily enter into re-union with the Roman Catholic Church by renouncing your ordination, renouncing the Women's Ordination Conference, and making a good confession and seeking forgiveness. Unless or until you do this, please do not refer or imply that you are in any way in communion with the Roman Catholic Church becasue you are not.
This is not to say I do not respect your right to practice your religion as you see fit. You certainly do have that right. I also agree that becasue of the scandal the ability of the Roman Catholic Church to preach the Truth of God has been compromised. I know that your religion does some very good works of charity, and I respect that. But you can't have it both ways. If you want to be Catholic, then be Catholic. If you don't want to be Catholic, then don't be Catholic, but you can't have it both ways. God's Chruch is not a cafeteria.
Apologist --
You have some serious problems. You have not given any reason why Bridget Mary (et al) and the rest of the movement are not OUR church. You just make a serious of statements. You really need to do some serious documentation.
Keep in mind that even the RCC recognizes the catholicity of schismatics -- although I do not for a moment believe that the members of RCWP are schismatic. Just a statement of fact. Check it out! For example, the Orthodox are schismatic from a Roman perspective but Rome recognizes the Orthodox as catholic. As I said, check it out!
What do you think of the fact that WE ARE CHURCH??? Do you think the Church is Rome or do you think that the Church is the people -- all of us who are Roman Catholic (and all the other catholics too)?
You seem to be obsessed with the fact that the RCC doesn't have the authority to ordain women. How do you account for the fact that Jesus never ordained anyone???
What do you mean by BE CATHOLIC???? Keep in mind that the Magisterium as a supreme unit never existed until just over 100 years ago.
Why do you ask Bridget Mary to RE-UNION with the church? Why is she out of union? Please document.
Why do you say that God's church is not a cafeteria? I think it is! And Jesus said, "In my father's house there are many mansions."
Deal with it, Apologist! Either that or come up with some solid documentation and be prepared to argue on an academic level. I do not argue with sweeping generalities.
To Ravensbarque,
I also have suggested that Apologist has problems.
The word tone that he chooses to use on Bridget Mary's Blog is so much harsher than that of his own blog.
Apologist,
Regarding the truth about our Catholic Church , and I do mean OUR as all of us, it simply is what it is. If the patriarch did not follow their own human made policies and procedures concerning the investigation and dismissal of child sexual abusers - then That is exactly what we must face. Priests and religious sexually abused children and some of current top leadership choose to do nothing about it...talk about a cafeteria !
As I wrote on your blog - it does hurt us all. How could we allow this to happen ?
I will tell everyone how we are going to prevent it from happening again...we are going to be an inclusive church and involve ourselves in the leadership and liturgy, along with policy and procedure creation/review at every level. WE are the Church, We are the body of Christ. Rome is not the church. It is a place where academics study and so called important humans hang out !
Yes, I am being informal on my comment.
Being Catholic is not a club that only certain people get to approve of others ...or have I missed something ? If so, the club has a problem, because there are members that are or did horrifically break God's law and human kind law of ethical and moral behavior by the sexual abuse of children. If it is a club where only certain types are let in, the club may want to rethink their entire leadership roster (for lack of legal action on child sexual abuse) and rethink some of their members who can only keep tightly squeezing onto: 1. Denying equality to all women 2: Denying and leading Catholic Gays and Lesbians to believe that they are not in God's grace, 3; trying to obstruct any change or progressive move that may stop the transmission of STD's and Aids in 3rd world countries..while we watch people die ! Is this the club ? Is this the Catholic church ?
Bridget Mary and the RCWP are in communion with the Catholic Church - very much so !
And the current leadership, policies and practices of the holy human kind Rome headquarters is in question.
I wonder what Jesus is thinking ?
What is Apologist's blogspot?
Ravensbarque,
If Bridget Mary does not mind, I will give you the address:
"Rockinapologist.blogspot.com"
I will deal with your claims on my blog. They are too numerous to deal with here. I do not think the comment section will allow for more then a certain number of words. You are welcome to comment there. So is Bridget Mary for that matter. Though Bridget Mary it does not seem likes to comment.
Linda,
You know, I mean no offense or disrespect- but one think I notice about people of a "liberal" or "Progressive" (if you prefer) ideology tend to have thin skin. That is to say they are delicate creatures, they do not like tones of "harshness" and view that as a sign of disrespect or a sign of arrogance.
I plead guilty to being arrogant. However, please understand my harsh tones are not meant to be taken as a sign of disrespect. I am a "Contraversialist." I am into Polemics, and I love the old Catholic Theology Manuals, and Neo-Scholastic Style of theology. Consequently my lanquage will often times taken on a Polemical or "Contraversialist" style.
Bridget Mary is a big girl, I am sure she can take it. I am sure if I went to far she would delete my comments, as she has done with other people who comment on this blog.
I would ask you however to understand, then where I am comming from. However I will try to soften the tone if it will help in dialog. I will say about myself, I do not have thin skin, and it takes a lot to offend me. I do not get offended easily, which might also help to explain the tone in my lanquage.
Apologist -- You said, "Bridget Mary is a big girl, I am sure she can take it. I am sure if I went to far she would delete my comments, as she has done with other people who comment on this blog."
First of all, Bridget Mary is not a "girl" in the sense you mean it. She is a woman. Yeah, she could delete your comments. But, why should she?
Then you said, "I would ask you however to understand, then where I am comming from."
Well, Apologist, I will take up the serious points on your blog. But, in the interim I strongly suggest you get your grammar and spelling straight.
Rav,
My grammar and spelling is one of my weaknesses, among many. My blog has a spell checker which is helpful. These comment sections do not have spell check. As a result, sometimes I misspell words.
When I said "Bridget Mary is a big girl" I mean "Bridget Mary is not a baby, she can take it when people critique her."
And that was just my point: Unless Bridget Mary feels my comments go to far she will not delete them. I am not aware that I have ever insulted her.
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