Pope Benedict XVI said it's 'necessary to perform penance' in response to public outrage at revelations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests. But some analysts say those hoping for change are up against a deeply conservative hierarchy.
Paris
With new accounts of unconscionable behavior toward Catholic students in a Bavarian monastery, fresh reports of Vatican delay in handling a pedophile priest in California, and a papal visit this weekend to Malta, where 84 cases of child abuse by priests were recently revealed, the Roman Catholic church continues to struggle with damage control and the perception of drift in a crisis it was quite unprepared for.
Pope Benedict XVI has come under fire from critics outside the church – and some inside it – for not decisively expelling priests from the clergy when credible evidence of the sexual abuse of children emerged. The evidence dates back to his tenure as Archbishop of Munich in the 1970s, and as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's doctrinal enforcement body, from 1981 until his election as pontiff in 2005.
On Thursday, there were mixed messages from the Vatican. The pope said at the end of a homily delivered in Rome that in response to the "attacks of the world that talks to us of our sins," the church sees "how it is necessary to perform penance." They were perhaps the most contrite words yet from the pope on the matter. But the same day, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, who as prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy has direct oversight of the world's roughly 400,000 Catholic priests, called on the clergy to descend on the Vatican to demonstrate "a determined rejection of the unjust attacks of which he is a victim." Read more - By Robert Marquand, - The Christian Science Monitor – CSMontior.com
Photo - Hamlet - This above all: to thine own self be true,
--------- And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. - William Shakespeare
Related links:
“…a conformity, in which it's obligatory to think like everyone else, to act like everyone," Benedict XVI said. – Pope Breaks Silence Over Recent Church Scandals - New York Magazine – read more
Happy Easter! 2010 - Sad Easter! - Benedict XVI - Cover-ups – Defense Orchestration – Kids Are Being Hurt!!! – read more
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
I object to "no propaganda against the United Nations or any member of the United Nations." It is like saying you are always sure you are going to be right. I am not always sure my Government or my nation will be right. I hope it will be and I shall do my best to keep it as right as I can keep it, and so, I am sure, will every other nation. But there are people who are going to disagree and I think we aim to reach a point where we on whole are so right that the majority of our people will be with us and we can always stand having among us the people who do not agree, because we are sure that the right is so carefully guarded among us and the freedom of people is so carefully guarded that we will always have the majority with us.
For that reason I oppose including in a report which we have to accept, this amendment, which I consider restrictive of human rights and human freedom. Read complete article - Eleanor Roosevelt on Human Rights: -> Human Rights and Human Freedom: An American View (1946) Eleanor Roosevelt
Ku Klux Klan put a bounty of $25,000 on Eleanor Roosevelt’s head because they didn't want her teaching people how to protest discrimination. 1958 – read more
"We can't afford to have two kinds of citizens, We must have equal citizenship for anybody in our country." Eleanor Roosevelt
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