After the flood of revelations over child abuse earlier this year, emerging in country after country to ever greater outrage over abuse, cover-up, and claims of inadequate institutional response, the flow of big, really scandalous news stories has pretty well…
Tag Archive for abuse of church power
Church, Crucifixion, and Resurrection
The resurrection theme is fundamental to the Christian faith, and is an idea that has often helped me to get through difficult times. It was natural then that during this difficult time for the Catholic Church, heading into the Easter…
Are the Bishops Breaking Ranks?
At the beginning of the week, the strongest impression of the collective response by the world’s bishops to the universal outcry over abuse, was that there was a co-ordinated, concerted strategy to deflect criticism from Pope Benedict himself, by drawing…
Austrian Cardinal’s “Truth & Reconciliation” Move
Around the world, leading bishops are having to face difficult decisions on how best to respond to the gathering storm of anger over church abuse, globally and in their own countries. On the one hand, many bishops are participating in…
US Abuse: Ratzinger’s Failure to Act
When Pope Benedict rebuked the Irish bishops for their failure to act on priests abusing those in his care, he made no made no mention of his own failures to act. We already knew that there were many such failures, simply because Vatican requirements were that all allegations of abuse were to be referred to his office at the CDF, and the bulk of them resulted in no action being taken. What has not been known, are the specifics. That will change, as more facts are swept out from under the Vatican carpet.
Michael Walsh on the Vatican’s Problem: Abuse and Renewal
At Open Democracy, there is one of the clearest analyses 0f the problem in the Vatican that I have yet seen. Here are some extracts There are many reasons given for the imposition of celibacy on (the majority of) Catholic…
Catholic Abuse: More Questions Than Answers
Was a “pastoral letter” the appropriate response in the first place? Since its release yesterday, I have read the full letter, as well as assorted summaries and commentaries, by churchmen, journalists and victims’ groups. Reflecting on it, I simply come…
From the Dublin Cover-up to the Vatican Cover-up
The Irish Murphy report into clerical abuse in Dublin was a governmental investigation into the Irish bishops’ cover-up of the original crimes. In the US, a vigorous press has done a great job of exposing corresponding cover-ups by the American…
Clerical Abuse, Clerical Cover-up
I have been reading Archbishop Rembert Weakland’s autobiography, A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church. Weakland is the former Archbishop of Milwaukee, and former “Abbot Primate” of the global Benedictine order, who was forced to retire when news of money paid…
Clerical Abuse: How We Are All The Solution.
My extended series on Clerical abuse has turned into a long and depressing affair, dragging on much longer that I ever expected,and leading me into several digressions along the way, included excursions into coming out as spiritual gift, South African…
