colin wrote: > > So the RC's are finally doing 'something' about their abusing priests. > Any chance they will be jailed for life and stripped of their > priesthood? Doubt it.
Lots of priests have been defrocked already, some even before the current publicity. Some priests have been sent to jail. Too many, though, and one is too many, were just moved around and reassigned so they ended up with a whole new group of children to abuse, and their new supervisors had no clue about their tendencies. That's criminal. As for the Bishop of Boston, surely at the very > least he should be jailed for aiding and abetting serious crimes? It's a real show of arrogance that he doesn't at least resign, although supposedly the pope won't let him resign. It's bad enough that there was so much abuse, hidden by church authorities for so long, but to now keep giving apologies is an empty gesture. The NY bishop has done that a few times in letters read during the services in church. Stop with the apologies already, and actually do something to keep such abuse from ever happening again. Considering allowing priests to marry or allowing women to be priests needs to be part of the current dialogue, not only among parishioners where it's been discussed for years, but among the bishops also. Unfortunately, the bishops are the only ones who have any power in the Catholic Church, unless the parishioners revolt en masse. That's happening now. Catholics are pissed off! The pope has said he won't even consider such subjects as married men or women priests, and at one point years ago was tempted and almost tried to do that "speaking from the chair" thing that popes are allowed to do, and which has only been done ONE TIME and that was regarding some Mary dogma. So, that goes to show how serious this current pope is about not allowing any changes regarding the priesthood. It's hard to imagine he would be a positive force in this situation, no matter how dramatic his calling the American bishops to Rome is... it's just another show. He seems to pray a lot; he doesn't seem to listen very well. As one of my favorite Jesuit priests says, the current pope has put the church back 50 years. I hope the next pope comes soon and does something more than try to hold onto an outdated status quo. > What will happen is we will get told a load of claptrap and excuses and it > will be forgotten and children will continue being the victims of this > silence. The church merely reflects society (rather than living up to its expressed ideals, unfortunately), so the only positive thing from the pain that so many people have suffered is that child abuse can never be hidden again, not in the thorough way it has been, which doesn't mean some people won't still abuse children and try to cover it up. I think and hope that such covering up will be harder to do now, not only in the Church but everywhere. > perhaps it will go someway to helping people see that priests are as > human as everyone else and not deserving of the exaltation they recieve. > (I believe no human being should be exalted over another-equal is > equal.) A lot of Catholics had some disdain for priests even before the current revelations of the horrible actions of some of them. To many people, priests too often considered themselves superior to the mere person in the pew, which is strange considering that it's the people sitting in the pews week after week who pay their salary, give them lifetime financial support, advanced education, a home, healthcare, travel expenses, who listen to what they say and usually automatically respect them. Cradle Catholics especially have it ingrained in them to respect "Father", no matter what "Father" might be doing. It's important to keep in mind that NOT ALL priests are pedophiles, just as not all ministers are, not all fathers are, not all teachers are. The jokes that people are saying on the list and that I'm hearing on tv can be funny, but they're pain-causing also. Non-Catholics especially seem to be enjoying taking big swats at the entire church, even though they have only the most superficial, sensationalistic information. I know some very fine priests, closely enough to know their struggles, to know that in spite of those struggles they live with integrity within what they recognize is a lousy system because they truly believe in God and want to share their awareness of God's love with everyone. It pains me to see all priests being painted with the same brush. However, since they are all part of the church system, perhaps they are all to blame, and if that's the case, parishioners are all to blame also. It may be time, enough parishioners may be angry enough, that there will be some changes made in Church structure. If not, there won't be enough money given to keep the current system going, and it will have to change, somehow, because of that. Debra Shea
