Vatican City, May 15, 2018 / 02:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- This week 34 Chilean bishops are meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the country’s clerical sexual abuse scandal, which involves at least one of the bishops attending the meeting. The meeting is significant, but not unprecedented.
Francis summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome in an April 8 letter admitting he had made “serious mistakes” in judgment of the nation’s abuse crisis, and which was a follow-up to the results of an in-depth investigation into accusations of abuse cover-up carried out by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s top prosecutor on clerical abuse.
In April 2002, Pope St. John Paul II called 13 U.S. cardinals and bishops to discuss a large-scale clerical sexual abuse crisis. Benedict XVI followed suit when the abuse crisis in Ireland came to light in 2009, inviting high-ranking Irish prelates and members of the Roman Curia to meet at the Vatican in February 2010.
It is practically unheard of, at least in recent history, that the pope would summon an entire bishops conference – or even the leading bishops and cardinals of a country – to Rome for a previously unplanned emergency visit. But sexual abuse, and cover-ups within ecclesial environments, seems to have merited that treatment more than other issues.
While John Paul was the first of the three most recent popes to make such a drastic request, Vatican observers say that a letter sent by Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland in March 2010 set the tone for the Vatican’s approach to sexual abuse crises around the world.
The letter, which was published after Benedict met with Irish prelates, is still widely read, taught, and referenced as a clear example of how the Vatican should respond to instance of abuse and cover-up.
According to veteran Vatican journalist John Allen, when the American bishops came to the Vatican in April 2002 to discuss the abuse crisis exploding in the U.S., the final results of the meeting were a mixed bag.
On one hand, John Paul II’s declaration that “people need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young” empowered American bishops to develop the June 2002 “Dallas Charter,” which set national standards in place for the prevention and reporting of child abuse.
On the other hand, Allen says, the documents outlining resolutions made by US bishops and the Vatican going into the future were rushed, and were considered by most in both the U.S. and Vatican delegations to be an inaccurate account of the discussion, and the plans that had been made.
In all, it would seem that the Vatican communiques following the meeting were a missed opportunity for the Church to send a strong, unified message to the world on the issue of clerical abuse.
However, Benedict XVI, who was present for the meeting with U.S. bishops in his capacity as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, got a first-hand account of the scope of the problem, the failures that allowed the abuse, the steps that needed to be taken in the future, and the damages done to individuals and to the credibility of the Church in an entire nation.
He likely drew from the experience when dealing with Ireland’s abuse scandal in 2009, and his insights seemed to guide his own discussion with Irish prelates, his handling of the conclusions of their meeting, and his 2010 letter to Irish Catholics.
During a May 14 press conference ahead of the meeting with Pope Francis to discuss their own country’s abuse crisis, Chilean bishops Fernando Ramos and Juan Ignacio González said they and their brother bishops had recently read Benedict’s 2010, and that it provides essential guidelines for them to follow in their own country.
In the letter, Benedict addressed Catholics in Ireland not only with the concern of a father, but also “with the affection of a fellow Christian, scandalized and hurt by what has occurred in our beloved Church.”
He divided the letter into sections addressed to particular groups of people, including victims and their families, parents, priests and religious guilty of abusing children, children and youth from Ireland, priests and religious from Ireland, Irish bishops themselves, and Irish Catholics on the whole.
Benedict apologized to victims, saying that nothing could undo the wrongs they had endured, and that it was understandable if they were unable to forgive and reconcile with the Church.
“In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel. At the same time, I ask you not to lose hope,” he said.
Among other things, Benedict urged greater formation on the issue of abuse for priests and religious, which was echoed by the Chilean bishops during their press conference.
He also highlighted several factors he said were causes in the abuse crisis. In addition to a rapidly changing and secularized cultural landscape, he said the procedures for finding suitable candidates for the priesthood and religious life were “inadequate,” and cited “insufficient human, moral, intellectual and spiritual formation in seminaries and novitiates” as one of the causes of institutional failure.
Also a problem, he said, was clericalism and an exaggerated respect for those in authority, as well as a “misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal, resulting in failure to apply existing canonical penalties and to safeguard the dignity of every person.”
In terms of concrete action, Benedict proposed a number of concrete initiatives, the first of which was to do penance.
He asked Ireland’s bishops to dedicate Lent of that year, 2010, as a time “to pray for an outpouring of God’s mercy and the Holy Spirit’s gifts of holiness and strength upon the Church in your country.”
Benedict also asked that Irish Catholics offer their Friday penances for that intention for a year – from Lent 2010 to Easter 2011 – requesting that they offer their regular prayer, fasting and acts of charity for healing and renewal for the Church of Ireland, and that they go to confession more frequently.
He said special attention ought to be paid to Eucharistic adoration, especially in parishes, seminaries, religious houses and monasteries in order to “make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm” and to ask for the grace of a renewed sense of their mission.
Benedict also announced that he would carry out an apostolic visitation to certain dioceses, seminaries and religious congregations and said he would implement a mission for bishops, priests and religious from Ireland.
The hope for the mission, he said, was that by access to holy preachers and with a careful rereading of conciliar documents, liturgical rites of ordination and recent pontifical teachings, consecrated persons would “come to a more profound appreciation of your respective vocations, so as to rediscover the roots of your faith in Jesus Christ and to drink deeply from the springs of living water that he offers you through his Church.”
During the press conference Monday with Chilean bishops, Ramos and González called Benedict’s letter “a precious and beautiful text full of guidelines that we will follow or are following.”
They also made comments reminiscent of the sentiments voiced by Benedict XVI, saying they are coming into the meeting this week with “shame and pain,” but they also voiced hope that the discussion will be a fresh start for the bishops, and will provide a decisive direction going forward.
However, while they have Benedict’s guidelines in mind, the bishops said that as far as this week goes, they are in Rome at the beckoning of Pope Francis, and their task “is to listen to Peter, to listen to the pope.”
“Conclusions will come, new paths will come out,” González said, adding that “the pope gives us light” indicating the path to be taken.
Meetings between Pope Francis and the Chilean bishops began early in the afternoon Monday, and will continue through Thursday, May 17. Unlike the 2002 meeting, the Vatican has already said there will be no communique or press release after the meeting, in order to keep the discussion confidential.
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Pope Francis must retract his published idea that “homosexual civil union” can be “legalized” because -as he alleges- homosexualism “is not a crime but a sin”.
Unless and until he does this people will pay a terrible price by dint of the evil presumptions and obstinacies, over and over again -but on account of him.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253749/shipwreck-leaves-more-than-50-migrants-dead-in-italy-the-church-expresses-pain
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan! for it is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Mt 4: 8-9). Satan then left.
This final temptation implies Satan’s suzerainty over all world authorities. Does it refer to kingdoms at the time, or at any time? Another scenario would be to employ Christ as Satan’s proxy. Assuming in this that Satan was not fully aware of Jesus’ divine nature as well as his human. Whatever might be the case, it would’ve been the ultimate subversion of good.
A distant parallel was Alexander the Great taught the virtues by Aristotle. Alexander employed those virtues to attain power, eventually conquest of the world [east and south of Rome]. Scripture says the world fell silent before him. What extension of authority would have been available to the most virtuous Jesus of Nazareth? Likely unlimited power.
Virtue can be employed for evil. That is the tragic anomaly we have in the Church. How many, from presbyter to pontiff have exercised the form of virtue in their lives and with that gained, seized opportunity to seduce and subvert the innocent? Perhaps the ultimate evil. Using Christ’s gifts for nefarious opportunity. Judas Iscariot possessed those virtues, evident when Christ first chose the Twelve and sent them out to raise the dead, heal the sick, expel demons, and preach the Word.
Judas was chosen. Christ in his divine knowledge knew his betrayer, although similar to the creation and foreknowledge of the Fall that prescient knowledge cannot limit the divine will to carry out good. The betrayer may have become corrupted in time, like so many young, fervent priests who when facing trials and adversity, unexpected temptations of the flesh fall. How many when made bishop? Pontiffs we know are not exempt. How needed are we for the prayers of the faithful? Of our cloistered Sisters? Beyond estimate.
Our present pontiff Francis is aware of this terrible dynamic calling it clericalism. Francis seems to fight the good fight on paper to employ an adage, yet belies words with confounding acts [no need to remind the reader of the litany of contradictory actions]. High authority, in the Church among churchmen the highest authority carries with it immense power. Virtues are evident. As well as application contrary to their ordination.
Got to thinkin’ about the three temptations: (1) material, (2) mistrust, and (3) power.
Yes, but another temptation, even more of a triad, is the ideological periodization of the human substance into three self-sufficient and ascending historical ages:
(1) Ancient,
(2) Middle Ages, and
(3) Modernity–C.S. Lewis’s “chronological snobbery”…
Likewise, the Middle Age theologian Joachim de Fiore’s triadic partitioning of:
(1) the age of the Father (Old Testament),
(2) the age of the Son (until his 13th century), and
(3) the age of the Holy Spirit (beginning in the 21st century, according some agendas).
And then, cutting through the ages, the threefold dismantling of Christ and his Church:
(1) Arianism (the notion that the incarnate Christ is not really divine),
(2) Islam/Protestantism (as cousins, the notion that either Christ is only a prophet foretelling Muhammad; or the succession of other human-founded “ecclesial communities” replacing the sacramental and Apostolic Succession), and
(3) the opposite of Arianism: polyhedral Synodality exaggerated such that Christ is not really human either—as in the obscuring of natural law/moral absolutes (the redefinition of indissoluble marriage, and all of sexual morality reflected in the Catechism and Veritatis Splendor).
In our Apostolic Age, once again, isn’t the mission of real synodality (“communion, participation, mission”) to clearly proclaim?…
(1) the transcendent Mystery of the relational Triune Oneness, and
(2) the Self-disclosing (!) Incarnation, who is totally Divine and totally Human, both (part of but also more than, say, the Abrahamic branch theory), and
(3) Who is also the Central Event within the flow and collage of all human history.
Dear Peter:
You state, ” Islam/Protestantism (as cousins, the notion that either Christ is only a prophet foretelling Muhammad; or the succession of other human-founded “ecclesial communities” replacing the sacramental and Apostolic Succession)”
How you arrived at that conclusion is something to consider, yet you will want to offer a Koran medley of confusion!?
Yes, do tell us about the “Religion of Peace” and allow yours truly to give a nod to Holy Scripture as a counterpoint!
1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.
2 Timothy 3:15 And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 15:3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
Allow me to help you out on this one and offer a verse or two from the Koran:
Quran 18:86 Till, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. We said: O Dhu’l-Qarneyn! Either punish or show them kindness.
Quran 41:11-12 Then turned He to the heaven when it was smoke, and said unto it and unto the earth: Come both of you, willingly or loth. They said: We come, obedient. Then He ordained them seven heavens in two Days and inspired in each heaven its mandate; and We decked the nether heaven with lamps, and rendered it inviolable. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Knower.
In the name of Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords,
Brian
Saturday 25 February 2023, the day before this Angelus message on first Lent Sunday 2023, Pope Francis addressed professors and students of the Roman Pontifical Universities.
The presentation he gave them is a literalistic synthesis of the 4 aphorisms in Evangelii Gaudium about time, unity, whole, reality. Not to bite at error, but I am having difficulties on three levels with it.
First , I find it impossible to gain a mere literary appreciation of it.
So much of what he says is figurative, speculatory, experimentive and exhortatory, save and except reference to the Eucharist of course. The trouble I am having is that the elements in the composition are muddled up because of the attempt to go from one figure into the other: from hands personified with intelligence via Aristotle and Kant, to fingers pointing in accusation at one another, to the consecration, to singing as one in harmony as a choir after Ignatius of Antioch but with no soloists, to unprecedented action undertaken like a seed with mandates from Pope Francis. Topping it off he says this all has to be in keeping with the understanding that “reality is more important than an idea” -when the effort being made is obviously to affect reality, ostensibly by the Pope, through a composition in ideas, in the first place. If I was there listening I would have had to be resetting my attention too many times and it could be I would have been so distracted doing it that I would have not gleaned from the talk anything worthy of the anyone.
Second, VATICAN II does admit of special apostolates.
Third, Pope Francis in a most outstanding manner was pointing a finger at Cardinal Pell, in the sign of a swinging pendulum, very ominous. What is this? I am deeply troubled by seeing it and my heart is in a turmoil on it every time it comes to me. It is hurting me I say. I am in pain. This is shown in the video in the CWR link, “Pope Francis greets cardinals one-by-one”, March 15 2013, report by Catherine Harmon.
https://zenit.org/2023/02/26/the-intelligence-of-the-hands-popes-reflection-to-students-and-professors-of-the-roman-pontifical-universities/
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2013/03/15/watch-pope-francis-greets-cardinals-one-on-one/
What would Papa know about the devil?
How will knowing that help anything! Are we supposed to know it!
January 2023 the Church of England blesses “same sex unions” and its head Welby goes in a “joint mission” abroad with the Pope to use it to say it is a “sign from Benedict XVI”. On their return Welby publicly “rebukes” Sam Margrave for speaking up about “LGBTQI+” (see Welby’s letter); and, no sooner, the world Anglican confederation separates itself from Welby.
So Welby may do the rebuking now?
The 4 dicta can’t lead Catholics through that.
Pope Francis can’t issue an instruction manual how the 4 dicta would lead through it.
You say we are supposed to look for the devil in Pope Francis’ understanding, “because it is necessary” to go through all that with the 4 dicta plus find the ways to make allowances?
Here you most definitely do not speak for me Brian Young.
https://catholicherald.co.uk/church-of-england-synod-member-rebuked-by-welby-for-publicly-opposing-same-sex-blessings/
Dear Elias:
It is an easy task to rebuke Welby for he is an unprofitable servant wandering from the precepts of Christ.
Though my query about Papa was somewhat ironic, is Papa a stalwart defender of the faith?
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
2 Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
1 Timothy 6:3-5 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
Jude 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Yours in Christ,
Brian