Tomorrow, Pope Francis opens a monthlong meeting of Bishops on engaging young Catholics as the Church reels from the scandals in the way it covered up for Clergymen who raped and molested young people.
Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia suggested postponing or canceling the Synod, given the poor optics of assembling the Church hierarchy to discuss a demographic harmed by the culture of concealment the same hierarchy has been accused of fostering.
A Dutch bishop, outraged that the Vatican has yet to respond to claims that Francis himself rehabilitated a predator American Cardinal, announced he was boycotting the meeting. An American Cardinal, Joseph Tobin, asked the Pope to let him stay home to cope with the scandal’s fallout in his Diocese.
The Synod is bringing together 266 Bishops from five continents for talks on helping young people find their vocations in life — be it lay or religious — at a time when Church marriages and Religious vocations are plummeting in much of the West.
What the Bishops say regarding homosexuality will be the most closely watched topic. The Vatican’s preparatory document made what is believed to be the first-ever reference in an official Vatican text to “LGBT.”
In addition, the role of women in the church will be watched, although no woman has any vote on the final document. Only a handful of women are attending as experts or as some of the 34 young people picked to attend — a structural imbalance in the Vatican’s synod process.
The Synod’s working document says young people in many secularized parts of the world simply want nothing to do with the Catholic Church, because they find it not only irrelevant to their lives but downright irritating.
“This request does not stem from uncritical or impulsive scorn, but is deeply rooted in serious and respectable reasons: sexual and economic scandals,” for which they demand the Church enforce a zero-tolerance policy.
But at the same time, the Vatican itself has fueled the latest scandal by refusing to respond to claims by a retired ambassador, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, that Pope Francis and a long list of Vatican officials before him covered up for ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington.
Many have expressed grave concerns that Synod organizers will take the opportunity it to advance their agenda to dilute Church teachings and, instead of calling young people to join the Church on the narrow path to Christ, want to have the Church move to meet them on the secular world's easy, wide path.
How?
By discarding centuries of wisdom about formation and how to evangelize young people under the guise of offering a listening ear, "meeting them where they are," and attention to "practical realities," giving in to worldly concerns.
I share these concerns, articulated by Archbishop Chaput.
Accompanying young people down the secular world's wide path is not the way to God. Permissiveness and dependence on human relationships is tempting, but it is treacherous. Young people don't need the Church to walk with them on this dangerous path, they need to the Church to show them the way to Christ!
The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Truth, and it is hard, except for God's grace and mercy. A formation that gives young people the tools, knowledge, and moral discipline to help them embrace the true path of holiness is what they need, often not realizing that need themselves.
We ask the Holy Spirit to bless the Synod and to inspire the Synodal Fathers to impart the Truth of the Lord Jesus and his Gospel to young people everywhere.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
POPE FRANCIS: PERHAPS GENERAL ABSOLUTION SHOULD BE THE NEW NORMAL FOR THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION
During his recent visit to Ireland, Pope Francis gave a “clear signal” to priests that the Church needs a different format for Confession, according to Father Brendan Hoban of the Association of Catholics.
Recalling the Pope’s visit to the Capuchin Day Centre for the Homeless in Dublin, Father Hoban said the Pontiff had remarked: “Priests can be too inquisitive in Confession. Like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, don’t cross-question. If someone is sorry, give them absolution.”
The County Mayo-based Pastor said the Pope was “sending a clear signal to Priests that we need a different format for Confessions, not the traditional ‘number and kind’ fixation of some priests but a format more acceptable and more respectful to penitents.”
Father Hoban said that some Priests were already using General Absolution while “many Priests are using a variation of it”.
He added that he was not surprised that the Bishops did not comment on the Pope’s remark on Confession because they had been “complaining” about priests’ use of General Absolution “for years”.
Censured Redemptorist, Father Tony Flannery, has said that he was beginning to change his mind on the matter.
Father Flannery noted the proposal of Australian writer and commentator on religious affairs, Paul Collins, that in future the Church should decree that General Absolution would be the only permitted way to celebrate the Sacrament.
That might be a way of side-stepping the challenge to the seal of confession following the Royal Commission report on clerical child abuse in Australia, he said commending the proposal as a good idea.
He recalled that general absolution had been fairly common in the 70s and early 80s, but that Pope St John Paul ll had “put an end to it”.
He also noted that the Vatican in 1973 had approved three forms or ways of celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
One is the traditional one-to-one with the Priest, usually in a Confessional; one is General Absolution, where the absolution for sin is celebrated with a gathering of the believers without individual confession; the third is Form 2, which he said is “a sort of a compromise” between these two, offered to a specific group.
I have argued that General Absolution should be offered during the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass.
Why should the Church deprive God's People of the Sacramental Grace of absolution by forcing them to attend separate and distinct rituals?
Should not the Church be as generous and eager to forgive as was Christ Jesus Himself?
Rather than make off-the-cuff remarks to Pastors here and there, I pray Pope Francis will issue a decree permitting the granting of General Absolution during the celebration of the Eucharist.
What thinkest you?
Recalling the Pope’s visit to the Capuchin Day Centre for the Homeless in Dublin, Father Hoban said the Pontiff had remarked: “Priests can be too inquisitive in Confession. Like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, don’t cross-question. If someone is sorry, give them absolution.”
The County Mayo-based Pastor said the Pope was “sending a clear signal to Priests that we need a different format for Confessions, not the traditional ‘number and kind’ fixation of some priests but a format more acceptable and more respectful to penitents.”
Father Hoban said that some Priests were already using General Absolution while “many Priests are using a variation of it”.
He added that he was not surprised that the Bishops did not comment on the Pope’s remark on Confession because they had been “complaining” about priests’ use of General Absolution “for years”.
Censured Redemptorist, Father Tony Flannery, has said that he was beginning to change his mind on the matter.
Father Flannery noted the proposal of Australian writer and commentator on religious affairs, Paul Collins, that in future the Church should decree that General Absolution would be the only permitted way to celebrate the Sacrament.
That might be a way of side-stepping the challenge to the seal of confession following the Royal Commission report on clerical child abuse in Australia, he said commending the proposal as a good idea.
He recalled that general absolution had been fairly common in the 70s and early 80s, but that Pope St John Paul ll had “put an end to it”.
He also noted that the Vatican in 1973 had approved three forms or ways of celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
One is the traditional one-to-one with the Priest, usually in a Confessional; one is General Absolution, where the absolution for sin is celebrated with a gathering of the believers without individual confession; the third is Form 2, which he said is “a sort of a compromise” between these two, offered to a specific group.
I have argued that General Absolution should be offered during the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass.
Why should the Church deprive God's People of the Sacramental Grace of absolution by forcing them to attend separate and distinct rituals?
Should not the Church be as generous and eager to forgive as was Christ Jesus Himself?
Rather than make off-the-cuff remarks to Pastors here and there, I pray Pope Francis will issue a decree permitting the granting of General Absolution during the celebration of the Eucharist.
What thinkest you?
GERMAN BISHOPS HEAR FULL EXTENT OF SEX ABUSE SCANDAL IN REPORT THEY COMMISSIONED
The 350-page study of clerical sexual abuse in all of Germany’s 27 Dioceses, parts of which had been leaked to the press two weeks ago, was officially presented to the press on September 25 during the Bishops’ Conference’s Autumn Plenary at Fulda.
The report compiled by an interdisciplinary research consortium commissioned and financed by the Bishops’ Conference, showed that between 1946 and 2014, 3,677 children and adolescents had been abused b 1,670 priests (4.4 per cent of the German clergy).
The coordinator of the study, Harald Dreßing, a psychiatrist from Mannheim, said at the presentation that what he had found most shattering was the extent of the abuse cases.
The results of the study showed that there “were and still are” structures in the Church which aided and abetted abuse. “Clerical abuse of power, priestly celibacy, the way in which sexuality, especially homosexuality, is handled, are among them.” It was therefore more important to analyse these structures and subjects related to them than the figures, “which can only be the tip of an iceberg”, Dreßing emphasised.
At the same time, he defended the study against its critics.
That the diocesan files had to be redacted for reasons of data protection and that it was not possible to investigate all the abuse cases since 1946 were facts that the team of investigators had known from the beginning. They had nevertheless been able to bring many important findings and insights to light.
Conference President, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, criticized both the way he himself and the Church had handled clerical sexual abuse. "For all too long, the Church has denied, looked the other way and covered up abuse,” he told the press at the Plenary.
Apologizing to the victims, he said: “I am deeply ashamed that so many who didn’t want to accept what had happened looked the other way and didn’t help the victims. We just didn’t listen to them.” Sexual abuse was crime, he said, and those guilty of it must be punished.
The German Minister of Justice, Katarina Barley, demanded that the Dioceses and Religious Orders “at long last” shoulder the responsibility for the decade-long clerical abuse and the way it had been denied. “Quite how massively the Church has abused trust, dependence and power is unbearable”, she said, and demanded that every abuse case be reported to the authorities from now on.
The German government’s Commissioner for dealing with sexual abuse of children, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, demanded greater cooperation between Church and state.
Independent experts should be called in. It was a case of determining which rights – such as access to files – victims must have in future.
According to Rörig the Church was faced with enormous structural problems.
The report compiled by an interdisciplinary research consortium commissioned and financed by the Bishops’ Conference, showed that between 1946 and 2014, 3,677 children and adolescents had been abused b 1,670 priests (4.4 per cent of the German clergy).
The coordinator of the study, Harald Dreßing, a psychiatrist from Mannheim, said at the presentation that what he had found most shattering was the extent of the abuse cases.
The results of the study showed that there “were and still are” structures in the Church which aided and abetted abuse. “Clerical abuse of power, priestly celibacy, the way in which sexuality, especially homosexuality, is handled, are among them.” It was therefore more important to analyse these structures and subjects related to them than the figures, “which can only be the tip of an iceberg”, Dreßing emphasised.
At the same time, he defended the study against its critics.
That the diocesan files had to be redacted for reasons of data protection and that it was not possible to investigate all the abuse cases since 1946 were facts that the team of investigators had known from the beginning. They had nevertheless been able to bring many important findings and insights to light.
Conference President, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, criticized both the way he himself and the Church had handled clerical sexual abuse. "For all too long, the Church has denied, looked the other way and covered up abuse,” he told the press at the Plenary.
Apologizing to the victims, he said: “I am deeply ashamed that so many who didn’t want to accept what had happened looked the other way and didn’t help the victims. We just didn’t listen to them.” Sexual abuse was crime, he said, and those guilty of it must be punished.
The German Minister of Justice, Katarina Barley, demanded that the Dioceses and Religious Orders “at long last” shoulder the responsibility for the decade-long clerical abuse and the way it had been denied. “Quite how massively the Church has abused trust, dependence and power is unbearable”, she said, and demanded that every abuse case be reported to the authorities from now on.
The German government’s Commissioner for dealing with sexual abuse of children, Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, demanded greater cooperation between Church and state.
Independent experts should be called in. It was a case of determining which rights – such as access to files – victims must have in future.
According to Rörig the Church was faced with enormous structural problems.
CHIEF RABBI OF VIENNA TAKES POPE-EMERITUS BENEDICT TO TASK
The Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Arie Folger, has taken issue with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI over his treatment of the “substitution theory” that colored relations between Jews and Christians over many centuries, and was used to justify persecution of Jews by Christians.
In an article in the July edition of Communio magazine Benedict claimed that the so-called substitution theory, according to which God’s covenant with the Jewish people was revoked after Christ’s Crucifixion, and Gentiles took on the mantle of his chosen people, had never been part of church teaching and had therefore actually never existed.
In the German Jewish weekly Jüdische Allgemeine on 19 July Rabbi Folger called this claim “ahistorical revisionism”.
“Despite all Benedict’s philosophical efforts, ‘Judensäue’ (Images of Jews in obscene contact with a large sow) have not disappeared from German cathedrals," he observed.
The editor of Communio, Hans-Heiner Tück, sent Folger’s article to Benedict who, in a long letter dated 23 August, replied to Folger thanking him for his “important and conductive contribution to Christian - Jewish Dialogue”, but he did not mention the substitution theory.
In his lengthy reply to Benedict’s letter dated 4 September, Folger recalls how important the concept of the never-revoked Covenant is for the fight against anti-Semitism and points to the enormous suffering Christians who believed in the substitution theory had inflicted on Jews for centuries.
Regarding the substitution theory, he emphasizes:
“In your Communio essay, you argue that the Church never believed in a substitution theory. As a former highest representative of the Catholic Church you have every right to argue thus, but the crimes that Christians committed against Jews in the name of Christianity, even if they are considered sinful today, must not be forgotten. What must not happen is to declare that everything was in reality always good and that just the perpetrators got it wrong. I do not take it upon myself to accuse you of hushing up history – God forbid – but it would mean a lot to us Jews for the Church to recognize that at certain times many Christians clung to the substitution theory and this justified immeasurable suffering."
In an article in the July edition of Communio magazine Benedict claimed that the so-called substitution theory, according to which God’s covenant with the Jewish people was revoked after Christ’s Crucifixion, and Gentiles took on the mantle of his chosen people, had never been part of church teaching and had therefore actually never existed.
In the German Jewish weekly Jüdische Allgemeine on 19 July Rabbi Folger called this claim “ahistorical revisionism”.
“Despite all Benedict’s philosophical efforts, ‘Judensäue’ (Images of Jews in obscene contact with a large sow) have not disappeared from German cathedrals," he observed.
The editor of Communio, Hans-Heiner Tück, sent Folger’s article to Benedict who, in a long letter dated 23 August, replied to Folger thanking him for his “important and conductive contribution to Christian - Jewish Dialogue”, but he did not mention the substitution theory.
In his lengthy reply to Benedict’s letter dated 4 September, Folger recalls how important the concept of the never-revoked Covenant is for the fight against anti-Semitism and points to the enormous suffering Christians who believed in the substitution theory had inflicted on Jews for centuries.
Regarding the substitution theory, he emphasizes:
“In your Communio essay, you argue that the Church never believed in a substitution theory. As a former highest representative of the Catholic Church you have every right to argue thus, but the crimes that Christians committed against Jews in the name of Christianity, even if they are considered sinful today, must not be forgotten. What must not happen is to declare that everything was in reality always good and that just the perpetrators got it wrong. I do not take it upon myself to accuse you of hushing up history – God forbid – but it would mean a lot to us Jews for the Church to recognize that at certain times many Christians clung to the substitution theory and this justified immeasurable suffering."
BETTER CHURCH GOVERNANCE: A NEW LAY WATCHDOG GROUP FORMS TO INVESTIGATE CARDINALS
US lay people are launching a new initiative to assess Cardinals’ records on combating abuse and corruption.
Better Church Governance (BCG) has signed up former FBI agents as investigators, led by Phil Scala, a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent.
Academics, lawyers and editors will help to draw up a dossier, “The Red Hat Report”, which will cover all Cardinals able to vote in the next papal conclave – that is, those under the age of 80. The report will be available to all Cardinal-electors and to the general public as well.
It aims to increase transparency and honesty in Church governance, to “empower members of the Church to courageously stand up for the truth”, and to help the Cardinals themselves.
BCG says in a briefing document: “Cardinals have commented that accurately knowing the backgrounds of the other Cardinal-electors is the most precarious part of each conclave. Our mission is to change this.”
The report “will not endorse or attack any Cardinal,” BCG say. Rather, they say they intend to help the hierarchy in the work of reforming the Church.
BCG notes that “lay movements have often outstripped the Church hierarchy” in matters of reform, pointing to St Catherine of Siena’s advice to the Popes, and St Peter Damian’s belief “that in ages of abuse or corrupt, interventions by foreign sovereigns and average laity were tasked with the maternal correction of the hierarchy”.
The project is led by Philip Nielsen, Director of Research at the Center for Evangelical Catholicism.
Jacob Imam, BCG’s Operations Director, said that the idea had been in the works since last spring, “but it was not until the Viganò letter broke that we saw what a great need there was”.
He stressed that the project was “not in opposition to the hierarchs but rather a service to them”, and that the abuse scandal called for prayer, sacrifice and practical help.
The report will assess Cardinals’ record, both positive and negative, on areas such as abuse and cover-ups, legal and financial misdealing, and “equivocation, evasion, or deceit when faced with credible charges of abuse or corruption”.
It will also seek to understand the networks of patronage, money and influence which help corruption and sexual abuse to flourish.
BCG is seeking donations; if it meets its targets, the leaders hope to publish a full edition of the Red Hat Report by April 2020. The first dossier, on North American cardinals, could appear early next year.
Imam said the project was motivated by reading about the extent of clerical abuse. “Instead of offering themselves as living sacrifices for the good of the flock, these Cardinals, Bishops, Priests sacrifice the innocent and young for their own demonic ends. When we see such an inversion of Christ’s own self-giving love, we must help reform in every way we can.”
In the briefing document, BCG say that they also want to show a more positive side of the Church: “There are still many holy and courageous men within the Episcopacy. Our job is to empower them – and to prove to the world that they are there. We hope to tell their stories in the hope that we can demonstrate the beauty of our Church and the goodness of the hierarchy to the world.
At a fund-raiser by invitation only held on the campus of Catholic University in Washington, DC, BCG raised $ 1.2 million which will be used to launch its investigation and report on US Cardinals.
BCG hopes to expand its mission to provide similar reports on American Bishops in present and past positions of authority and ministry.
One can only imagine the reaction of American Cardinals and Bishops to this latest lay initiative!
Better Church Governance (BCG) has signed up former FBI agents as investigators, led by Phil Scala, a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent.
Academics, lawyers and editors will help to draw up a dossier, “The Red Hat Report”, which will cover all Cardinals able to vote in the next papal conclave – that is, those under the age of 80. The report will be available to all Cardinal-electors and to the general public as well.
It aims to increase transparency and honesty in Church governance, to “empower members of the Church to courageously stand up for the truth”, and to help the Cardinals themselves.
BCG says in a briefing document: “Cardinals have commented that accurately knowing the backgrounds of the other Cardinal-electors is the most precarious part of each conclave. Our mission is to change this.”
The report “will not endorse or attack any Cardinal,” BCG say. Rather, they say they intend to help the hierarchy in the work of reforming the Church.
BCG notes that “lay movements have often outstripped the Church hierarchy” in matters of reform, pointing to St Catherine of Siena’s advice to the Popes, and St Peter Damian’s belief “that in ages of abuse or corrupt, interventions by foreign sovereigns and average laity were tasked with the maternal correction of the hierarchy”.
The project is led by Philip Nielsen, Director of Research at the Center for Evangelical Catholicism.
Jacob Imam, BCG’s Operations Director, said that the idea had been in the works since last spring, “but it was not until the Viganò letter broke that we saw what a great need there was”.
He stressed that the project was “not in opposition to the hierarchs but rather a service to them”, and that the abuse scandal called for prayer, sacrifice and practical help.
The report will assess Cardinals’ record, both positive and negative, on areas such as abuse and cover-ups, legal and financial misdealing, and “equivocation, evasion, or deceit when faced with credible charges of abuse or corruption”.
It will also seek to understand the networks of patronage, money and influence which help corruption and sexual abuse to flourish.
BCG is seeking donations; if it meets its targets, the leaders hope to publish a full edition of the Red Hat Report by April 2020. The first dossier, on North American cardinals, could appear early next year.
Imam said the project was motivated by reading about the extent of clerical abuse. “Instead of offering themselves as living sacrifices for the good of the flock, these Cardinals, Bishops, Priests sacrifice the innocent and young for their own demonic ends. When we see such an inversion of Christ’s own self-giving love, we must help reform in every way we can.”
In the briefing document, BCG say that they also want to show a more positive side of the Church: “There are still many holy and courageous men within the Episcopacy. Our job is to empower them – and to prove to the world that they are there. We hope to tell their stories in the hope that we can demonstrate the beauty of our Church and the goodness of the hierarchy to the world.
At a fund-raiser by invitation only held on the campus of Catholic University in Washington, DC, BCG raised $ 1.2 million which will be used to launch its investigation and report on US Cardinals.
BCG hopes to expand its mission to provide similar reports on American Bishops in present and past positions of authority and ministry.
One can only imagine the reaction of American Cardinals and Bishops to this latest lay initiative!
Monday, October 1, 2018
HOW THE AVERAGE CATHOLIC IS RESPONDING TO THE SCANDALS: My Personal Opinion
I have been conducting an informal survey, speaking with Catholic Pastors who have been friends throughout the course of the four decades I served in active Priestly ministry.
I have been trying to determine if there is any evidence to suggest that faithful Catholics are leaving their parishes or simply not approaching the Sacraments with the frequency they did prior to the recent Pennsylvania Grand Jury report as well as the scandalous allegations which Archbishop Vigano has made against high-ranking Church officials including Pope Francis himself.
The Priests I spoke to indicated that they have seen no discernible difference in either Mass attendance or voluntary contributions since these stories broke.
But all of them have told me that many of their parishioners have been quite frank in expressing their anger and disappointment.
Speaking further with these same Pastors, it appears that local parishes will sustain the fallout from this horrid tales of the homosexual predation of young males by Catholic Clergy and the almost universal strategy which Bishops employed in the cover up of the abuse.
In previous articles, I offered my opinion that the Catholic faithful identify the Universal Church with their experience of the Faith in the context of their parish.
Catholics are loyal to their parishes and to the Priests whom they have experienced to be dedicated and fervent ministers of Christ’s Word and Sacraments.
And so, when the horrid and horrible stories of abuse are publicized, many Catholics empathize with the suffering of the victims and their families, they are frustrated and angered by the lack of accountability on the part of the abusers and the Bishops who covered for them, but they remain loyal to their parish and to their Pastors who have served them in times of great joy or sadness.
Here, then, is what I think the impact these scandals will have on the average Catholics who still attend Mass and receive the Sacraments frequently.
These good people will continue to attend their parishes and support their Pastors.
But, these same good people will withhold their allegiance to their Bishops, whom they generally see as aloof administrators of the a “corporation” rather than as “pastors of souls”.
The Bishops, all of them and most sadly the Bishop of Rome himself, have lost what little moral authority and persuasion they held.
While serving as a Pastor, it was my experience that people generally made up their own minds about what was right or wrong, morally sinful or not, the gravity of their actions and whether or not they needed the intervention of the Church to form their consciences or absolve their sins.
Catholics have long since the end of Vatican Council II deferred to the Bishops in discerning whether or not their choices or actions conform to the tenets of Catholic teaching.
In the wake of these scandals, the role of Bishops as teachers and shepherds will be diminished even more.
Only when these scandals touch upon their experience of the Faith at the parish level do Catholics generally react to the point of abandoning their Catholic heritage.
And so, Pastors can likely expect that the folks who were attending Mass and contributing to the parish before these latest scandals will continue to do so for the most part.
But the Bishops must know that those same Catholics will be deaf to their words and withholding of their offerings.
And while the ecclesial structure of Church governance remains the same on the abstract and theological level, the reality is quite different indeed.
In the day to day functioning of the Church, it is the local parish Priest who has the greatest impact upon the lives and the faith of those entrusted to his care.
The Bishops may get before banks of microphones, appear on television and radio, command columns of newsprint in their efforts to speak to the people of their dioceses, but their words are like seeds scattered by the winds and will take no root because no one is paying attention to who they are or what they are saying.
In this, the Church structurally and sacramentally has suffered a mortal, if not, fatal blow.
I have been trying to determine if there is any evidence to suggest that faithful Catholics are leaving their parishes or simply not approaching the Sacraments with the frequency they did prior to the recent Pennsylvania Grand Jury report as well as the scandalous allegations which Archbishop Vigano has made against high-ranking Church officials including Pope Francis himself.
The Priests I spoke to indicated that they have seen no discernible difference in either Mass attendance or voluntary contributions since these stories broke.
But all of them have told me that many of their parishioners have been quite frank in expressing their anger and disappointment.
Speaking further with these same Pastors, it appears that local parishes will sustain the fallout from this horrid tales of the homosexual predation of young males by Catholic Clergy and the almost universal strategy which Bishops employed in the cover up of the abuse.
In previous articles, I offered my opinion that the Catholic faithful identify the Universal Church with their experience of the Faith in the context of their parish.
Catholics are loyal to their parishes and to the Priests whom they have experienced to be dedicated and fervent ministers of Christ’s Word and Sacraments.
And so, when the horrid and horrible stories of abuse are publicized, many Catholics empathize with the suffering of the victims and their families, they are frustrated and angered by the lack of accountability on the part of the abusers and the Bishops who covered for them, but they remain loyal to their parish and to their Pastors who have served them in times of great joy or sadness.
Here, then, is what I think the impact these scandals will have on the average Catholics who still attend Mass and receive the Sacraments frequently.
These good people will continue to attend their parishes and support their Pastors.
But, these same good people will withhold their allegiance to their Bishops, whom they generally see as aloof administrators of the a “corporation” rather than as “pastors of souls”.
The Bishops, all of them and most sadly the Bishop of Rome himself, have lost what little moral authority and persuasion they held.
While serving as a Pastor, it was my experience that people generally made up their own minds about what was right or wrong, morally sinful or not, the gravity of their actions and whether or not they needed the intervention of the Church to form their consciences or absolve their sins.
Catholics have long since the end of Vatican Council II deferred to the Bishops in discerning whether or not their choices or actions conform to the tenets of Catholic teaching.
In the wake of these scandals, the role of Bishops as teachers and shepherds will be diminished even more.
Only when these scandals touch upon their experience of the Faith at the parish level do Catholics generally react to the point of abandoning their Catholic heritage.
And so, Pastors can likely expect that the folks who were attending Mass and contributing to the parish before these latest scandals will continue to do so for the most part.
But the Bishops must know that those same Catholics will be deaf to their words and withholding of their offerings.
And while the ecclesial structure of Church governance remains the same on the abstract and theological level, the reality is quite different indeed.
In the day to day functioning of the Church, it is the local parish Priest who has the greatest impact upon the lives and the faith of those entrusted to his care.
The Bishops may get before banks of microphones, appear on television and radio, command columns of newsprint in their efforts to speak to the people of their dioceses, but their words are like seeds scattered by the winds and will take no root because no one is paying attention to who they are or what they are saying.
In this, the Church structurally and sacramentally has suffered a mortal, if not, fatal blow.
GERMAN BISHOPS: OPTIONAL CELIBACY NEEDS SERIOUS CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL
In the latest of a series of sex assault scandals to rock the Catholic Church worldwide, the German Conference of Bishops this week published a study showing that at least 3,677 minors were abused by clergy between 1946 and 2014.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who heads the Conference, apologized to the thousands of victims and promised to leave no stone unturned in dealing with the problem plaguing the Church.
Speaking at the close of a three-day meeting of top Clergy in Fulda, Marx stressed that "no topic would be taboo".
Rather, he promised a broad discussion that would also examine questions on celibacy and the Church's sexual morals.
With allegations battering the Church from the United States to Chile to Australia, voices calling on Pope Francis to abolish celibacy for Priests have grown louder.
A five-year inquiry in Australia into the widespread child sex abuse affecting 15,000 people recommended that celibacy among Catholic Priests should be voluntary to help curb abuse.
Pope Francis has said that "celibacy is not a dogma", and that the Church may consider Ordaining married men to work in areas faced with a shortage of Priests.
But the Vatican does not yet seem ready to take the step of ending the practice.
In Germany, the researchers from three universities who carried out the study on the extent of sexual misconduct by Priests said the true scale of the abuse was far greater, as many documents had been "destroyed or manipulated".
They have also warned that "sexual abuse is a persistent problem" in the Catholic Church and presumably ongoing, "not a historical problem".
Predator Priests were often transferred to other parishes that were commonly not warned about their criminal history.
Only about one in three were subject to disciplinary hearings by the Church, and most got away with minimal punishment. Only 38 percent were prosecuted by civil courts.
Many experts have concluded that celibacy has contributed to the homosexual predation of young men by Priests and Clergy.
I agree and support optional celibacy in the Latin Church for this and a whole host of other reasons.
But, opening the Priesthood to voluntary celibacy is not the panacea those same experts believe it will be.
The German Bishops and the Church in Germany are caught in the throes of a terrible scandal and they are eager to find as many solutions as possible.
I pray their desperation does not diminish the pastoral reasons why celibacy should be optional in the Latin Church.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who heads the Conference, apologized to the thousands of victims and promised to leave no stone unturned in dealing with the problem plaguing the Church.
Speaking at the close of a three-day meeting of top Clergy in Fulda, Marx stressed that "no topic would be taboo".
Rather, he promised a broad discussion that would also examine questions on celibacy and the Church's sexual morals.
With allegations battering the Church from the United States to Chile to Australia, voices calling on Pope Francis to abolish celibacy for Priests have grown louder.
A five-year inquiry in Australia into the widespread child sex abuse affecting 15,000 people recommended that celibacy among Catholic Priests should be voluntary to help curb abuse.
Pope Francis has said that "celibacy is not a dogma", and that the Church may consider Ordaining married men to work in areas faced with a shortage of Priests.
But the Vatican does not yet seem ready to take the step of ending the practice.
In Germany, the researchers from three universities who carried out the study on the extent of sexual misconduct by Priests said the true scale of the abuse was far greater, as many documents had been "destroyed or manipulated".
They have also warned that "sexual abuse is a persistent problem" in the Catholic Church and presumably ongoing, "not a historical problem".
Predator Priests were often transferred to other parishes that were commonly not warned about their criminal history.
Only about one in three were subject to disciplinary hearings by the Church, and most got away with minimal punishment. Only 38 percent were prosecuted by civil courts.
Many experts have concluded that celibacy has contributed to the homosexual predation of young men by Priests and Clergy.
I agree and support optional celibacy in the Latin Church for this and a whole host of other reasons.
But, opening the Priesthood to voluntary celibacy is not the panacea those same experts believe it will be.
The German Bishops and the Church in Germany are caught in the throes of a terrible scandal and they are eager to find as many solutions as possible.
I pray their desperation does not diminish the pastoral reasons why celibacy should be optional in the Latin Church.
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