Pope Benedict XVI, on the eve of his first visit to the United States as Pontiff, faces a number of challenges. Not only is this a group of Catholics who have a very liberal view of church doctrine, but is also reeling in the sexual abuse scandal by members of the clergy in recent years.
The Pope’s visit is three-fold. Firstly, it is seen as a pastoral visit to his American faithful. Two, it is an opportunity to address the issues of sexual abuse within the church and try to heal some wounds. And thirdly, the Pope wishes to engage more with the United Nations.
It is this second aspect of his tour that he will have the most challenge with, and for good reason. The church all around the world has failed dismally in its response to sexual abuse, and has been dragged kicking and screaming to the altar of action. If it had its way, the church would have washed their hands in this, and hoped it would go away. But it didn’t, and Benedict will see very clearly that it still hasn’t. Those in the Boston area of the United States, especially, will have some strong questions about their former Archbishop, and how he is doing since the crisis of 2002. And so they should.
Benedict promises to say sorry; to ask forgiveness of those who were affected by this hideous period. But it will be an empty sorry, as when Cardinal Bernard Francis Law resigned his position as Archbishop of Boston, he didn’t just slip away into quiet retirement, feeling guilt for all the abuse he allowed to happen in his Archdiocese. He was rewarded..yes.. rewarded with a trip to Rome and these positions:
‘After his resignation, John Paul appointed Law to several authoritative positions in Rome and the Vatican. He is currently the archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. He is also a member of the Congregations of Oriental Churches, Clergy, Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, Evangelisation of Peoples, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Catholic Education, Bishops as well as the Pontifical Council for the Family. This is a large number of organisations for any cardinal to be involved in and is partly due to residing in Rome.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Francis_Law
So, this is how it works in the Catholic Church? You contribute to completely screwing up family’s lives by denying abuse was happening under your nose for 18 years, and the punishment for that is you receive top positions in Rome, even a few to do with ‘family’, ‘catholic education’ and of all things ‘clergy’ (priests). What sort of message is that sending?
Of course Cardinal Law offered a deeply felt ’sorry’ and ‘asked for forgiveness’, which was so nice of him, but a real ’sorry’ would have been to act on complaints he was getting constantly about priests interfering with children. On the contrary, this was his response to a letter from a parent:
‘In 1987, after at least 23 years of child molesting by Father Birmingham during which time he was shuffled to various parishes, the mother of an altar boy at St. Anns wrote to Law asking if Birmingham had a history of molesting children. Cardinal Law wrote back “I contacted Father Birmingham. … He assured me there is absolutely no factual basis to your concern regarding your son and him. From my knowledge of Father Birmingham and my relationship with him, I feel he would tell me the truth and I believe he is speaking the truth in this matter.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Francis_Law
Although Cardinal Law’s appointments in Rome were made by the previous Pontiff, John Paull II, Benedict has some serious justifying to do for keeping him there. Otherwise those he is apologising to will be sharpening their knives and licking their lips.
We can always serve his liver with a nice Chianti.
Enjoy your day.
