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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One criticism of Gaudium et spes (“The Joys and Hopes”) has been its early-1960s and Teilhardian optimism, when subsequent history has shown all of us that this is a more complicated and conflicted age. As suggested in the balancing next few words of the same document’s title line: “the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age…”
This big picture is forced toward “the temptation of polarization” only when the second half is still dismissed. So, yes to hope and joy, but also sober thought and governance, as in acting unambiguously on the obvious adulteration of joyful synodality.
Rescue the real Vatican II from the termites—the council’s Ratzinger over today’s Batzinger. (Also Marx, Hollerich, Grech, and the backstage Kasper).
As a 40 year street grunt in the pro-life movement, I do appreciate the strong definitive statement for defending life in GS. But in reading the complete document the overall bias is that of an optimism that seems to trivialize an awareness of original sin and the permanent imperfectability of the human condition. This could not help but provide impetus for validating the nefarious “spirit” of Vatican II.
Espléndida o Asquerosa. A Church espléndida, madly in love, free and freeing. Progressivism that lines up behind the world. Or Asquerosa. Traditionalism. Indietrism that longs for a bygone world not of love, but of infidelity.
Rarely has El Capo so clearly defined the divergent paths taken from the Council. And the one true path he, he alone has revealed. An epiphany. Rich with intoxicating freedom. Expansive. The other, stifling, mean, judgmental. His Holiness extols this “Church that is free and freeing. The path the council pointed out to the Church” [how could so many of us have missed this?].
New doctrine, paradigmatic that liberates us from repentance, the sacrament of marriage instituted for a man and woman. Free from remaining imprisoned in a body with which we’re disappointed. Love all. Love who you wish. Love as you wish.
Liberation at last. Free at last. After 2000 years of constricted infidelity worshiping a mistake, delusional martyrs spilling their blood for naught. Until the deliverance of El Gran Libertador.
Jorge Bergoglio’s apostasy was external and made public and notorious, when as a cardinal, he stated in his book, On Heaven and Earth, in regards to same-sex sexual relationships, and thus same-sex sexual acts, prior to his election as pope, on page 117, denying The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque)and demonstrating that he does not hold, keep, or teach The Catholic Faith, and he continues to act accordingly:
“If there is a union of a private nature, there is neither a third party, nor is society affected. Now, if the union is given the category of marriage, there could be children affected. Every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help shape their identity.”- Jorge Bergoglio, denying The Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and the fact that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, while denying sin done in private is sin. To deny The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, is to deny The Divinity Of The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, And Holy Ghost, which is Apostasy.
From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church:
II. THE DEFINITION OF SIN
“1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”121
1850 Sin is an offense against God: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight.”122 Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become “like gods,”123 knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus “love of oneself even to contempt of God.”124 In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.125
1851 It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is about to vanquish it, that sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many forms: unbelief, murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people, Pilate’s cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas’ betrayal – so bitter to Jesus, Peter’s denial and the disciples’ flight. However, at the very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this world,126 the sacrifice of Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will pour forth inexhaustibly.”
It is a sin to accomodate an occasion of sin, and thus cooperate with evils.”
Pray for the safety of Pope Benedict XVI.
Dear Blessed Mother Mary, Mirror Of Justice And Destroyer Of All Heresy, Who Through Your Fiat, Affirmed The Filioque, and thus the fact that There Is Only One Son Of God, One Word Of God Made Flesh, One Lamb Of God Who Can Taketh Away The Sins Of The World, Our Only Savior, Jesus The Christ, thus there can only be, One Spirit Of Perfect Complementary Love Between The Father And The Son, Who Must Proceed From Both The Father And The Son, In The Ordered Communion Of Perfect Complementary Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity (Filioque), hear our Prayer that The True Pope, Pope Benedict XVI,and those Faithful Bishops In Communion With Christ and His Church, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, will do The Consecration Of Russia to your Immaculate Heart, exactly as you requested, visibly separating the counterfeit church from The True Church Of Christ, and affirming The Filioque. Although at the end of the Day, it is still a Great Mystery, It is no Mystery, that we exist, because God, The Communion Of Perfect Love, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Exists.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“Come, Holy Ghost”.
Disposed apologetically having recognized [while watching Arroyo’s George Weigel interview] my error of misinterpreting Pope Francis on a “Progressivism that lines up behind the world” that he is actually criticizing not approving, emphasizing unity. My apology to Francis.
“Pope Francis noted that there is always the temptation to start from one’s self and one’s agenda, rather than from God and his Gospel.”
Take a long look in the mirror, Pope Francis.
A mind with as little self-awareness as his, as Orwellian as his, is very far gone. It seems the only hope would be for someone, acting with the instrumentality of God’s grace were to get in his face, behind closed doors, and read him the riot act, and not stop until the Swiss Guards dragged him out.
Joy was in my heart when I heard them sing, let’s go to God’s House. Saint John XXIII – Pray for us.
Our Lady at the Annunciation was NOT first moved on or with joy. She was moved in prudence. Joy is always a fruit and we have it as a set lesson from the BVM in the way of being immaculate.
The Holy Father needs to be careful. The problems he here distills, do not define VATICAN II, on the one hand; and on the other, do not address differing realities in specific situations.
Wrong prescriptions would sustain wrongs and make them worse. And meantime his supplying over-riding spiritual direction -as for eg., he is now doing with “desire”- would root them in deeper.
More generally, I feel the Holy Father has lost sight of the fact that he is not the only one who can raise a valid criticism. He points fingers at partisans, then protects particular erring sides.
This word indietrism is not helpful. People will understand “indoctrination” easier. Indietrism is allowing things to pass as “not indoctrinating” that in fact push irreligion and anti-faith.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252522/pope-francis-on-vatican-ii-anniversary-may-the-church-be-overcome-with-joy
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/252527/pope-francis-desire-points-our-discernment-in-the-right-direction