I haven't left yet, and the after reading the following, I just had to comment.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when you are caught between trying to decide between two conflicting options. One of these options is irrational; nevertheless, you are emotionally inclined to choose it. On the other hand, the second option is more rational, but you are not inclined to choose it.
The first to have looked carefully at cognitive dissonance appears to be Aristotle, who offered the following illustration in his classic treatise on Ethics (Book 7): Suppose you see something sweet. You think about how sweet it is and want to eat it. On the other hand, you realize that it is not healthy for you. So there you are, torn in two directions.
If you suffer from weakness of the will (what the Greeks called Akrasia), you will succumb to the desire and eat the sweet. However, if you do have the willpower, you can resist the inclination, and choose the healthy option.
The latest sign of extreme cognitive dissonance within the present Pontificate came, when Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C.
But, in doing so, the Holy Father lavished all sorts of kudos and praise upon Cardinal Wuerl for his “nobility” in having chosen not to defend himself by justifying his against the fact that he had been named in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report more than 200 times, with accounts that he mishandled accusations against predator Priests when he was Bishop of Pittsburgh.
If Pope Francis had wanted to send a message that Bishops should be held accountable, then praising Cardinal Wuerl and asking him to stay on until his successor had been chosen—as well as keeping him on a powerful Vatican Congregation that chooses future Bishops—was completely antithetical to that end.
In a letter from the Pope to Cardinal Wuerl made public by the Archdiocese of Washington, the Holy Father wrote, “You have sufficient elements to ‘justify’ your actions and distinguish between what it means to cover up crimes or not to deal with problems, and to commit some mistakes,” Francis wrote Wuerl. “However, your nobility has led you not to choose that way of defense. Of this, I am proud and thank you.”
Anyone else find it disturbing that the Pope praises the Cardinal’s silence as an act of “nobility”?
Perhaps, that is how the Supreme Pontiff views his own reticence in responding to accusations that he himself participated in covering up the McCarrick scandal, that his own silence is also a “noble gesture”.
This message will no doubt infuriate many sex-abuse victims. And perhaps rightfully so.
Reasonable Catholics seriously question whether the Pope understands the scope of the sex-abuse problem and whether will he take serious and effective measures to tackle it.
Readers of this blog have commented that they are totally frustrated by the silence and equivalence of the Holy Father.
For the most part, a good many faithful parishioners are indifferent in their lack of response these intrigues. They have long since grown tired of the accusations and the silence as well as the ambivalent gestures on the part of the Pope and the Holy See.
Most folks in the pews are just too disengaged to even care.
But what they what they have done is to withdraw their moral allegiance to the Bishops and the Vatican as the voice which directs their consciences in the moral judgments they must make.
Most Catholics are pretty sanguine about it all, having decided long ago that the sexual abuse crisis is indeed a crisis but one which will never see Bishops being held accountable.
For that reason, they continue to approach the Sacraments in a public affirmation of their faith but, privately within the cathedrals of their individual consciences, they no longer welcome or admit the teachings of the Church enunciated by Bishops they longer respect or to whom they no longer offer their moral allegiance.
That is the real damage which not only the sexual abuse itself but the ambiguity of the Pope’s response to it have inflicted upon the Church.
Sadly, His Holiness and the entire Catholic hierarchy appear to be oblivious to this reality.
And nothing appears on the horizon to convince me or many readers that anything is going to change soon.
Perhaps, somewhere and sometime in a future Pontificate actually committed to reform and revival, things will be different.
We can always hope.
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