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Papal Public Relations
The Papacy is not other than the Ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof.
— Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
The problem lies with the Public Relations Office. He was doing fine until the buck, as it were, landed in his collection plate.
On October 28, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI was in Ireland and had occasion to address the sex abuse scandal that had engulfed the church in that country. He asked the Bishops of Ireland to come to terms with and explain the cause of the sexual abuse.
In April 2008 he visited the United States and met with a small group of people who had been sexually abused as children by members of the clergy. In one of his homilies while visiting he said: “No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse.”
In July 2008, he visited Australia. Speaking at a mass attended by seminarians and bishops, the Pope acknowledged the “shame that we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy” in Australia. He said: “Those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice.”
He returned to the Irish problem in November 2009 when the Murphy Report that examined more than 300 abuse claims in the Archdiocese of Dublin between 1975 and 2004 was released. (The Murphy after whom it was named was not the Murphy who, we learned in March 2010, abused more than 200 deaf children in Wisconsin. The Murphy report said that instead of being concerned for the victims of abuse, the church was more concerned about “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church and the preservation of its assets.” Responding to the report the Pope said he shared the “outrage, betrayal and shame felt by the faithful in Ireland.” He promised to write a pastoral letter addressing the issue. The pastoral letter was slow in coming. That’s probably because a pastoral letter is not the kind of letter you sit down and write when you are having trouble sleeping. It took the Pope almost four months to figure out exactly what to say to the Irish faithful. In the letter he said: “I can only share in the dismay and the sense of betrayal that so many of you have experienced on learning of these sinful and criminal acts and the way Church authorities in Ireland dealt with them. . . . For my part, considering the gravity of these offences, and the often inadequate response to them . . . I have decided to write this Pastoral Letter to express my closeness to you and to propose a path of healing, renewal and reparation.”
The pastoral letter was coincidentally sent on March 19, 2010 at almost the same time as tales from the Northwoods of Wisconsin, Germany, the Netherlands and France were being told of sexual abuse of children. Those occurrences took place under Benedict’s closed, if not blind, eye while he served in 1980 as archbishop of Munich and Freising and later as leader of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In both of those capacities many think he knew or should have known what was going on. The compassion button has now been turned off and the PR people have gone on holiday as the Vatican responds to these allegations. Since these acts occurred on his watch, Benedict cannot write yet another pastoral letter expressing “outrage, betrayal and shame felt by the faithful” since he would probably have to acknowledge responsibility as well. It is also good he did not ask Irish Bishops, who similarly overlooked such conduct, to resign (as some had expected he would) since had he done so and that standard been applied to him the same demand might now be made of him.
Statements of contrition and shame have been replaced with attacks on the press. In a Good Friday sermon, Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the papal household, said the concern being expressed over sexual abuse scandals was similar to what happened to the Jews during the holocaust. Stretching reason beyond the breaking point he suggested the collective violence to which the Jews were subject during the holocaust was the same as the collective violence to which the church was subject by those criticizing its behavior in the sexual abuse scandal. Although his sermon was disavowed by some, the attacks on the press continue. The days of papal apologies and expression of contrition and shame have come and gone along with the Vatican public relations staff. The shoe being on the papal foot, the fault is now seen to lie with the reporters-not the perpetrators and those who overlooked their transgressions. Of such stuff is moral courage made.
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21 Comments so far
Show AllI cannot believe that Pope Benedict's interpretation of "turn the other cheek" is what Jesus had in mind.
No, but that interpretation is the one used by those priests who molest children.
Love the opening quotation.
Time to end the special status of Tax Exemption for Churches. All of them. With interest and penalties going back to 1776.
I read about the horrendous sex abuse of children by Catholic priests in all the mainstream media, frequently. I also see news reports about it on the Television. The media gives this topic the attention it needs.
Pope Benedict XVI chose an American, Catholic Archbishop William Levada, in 2005, to replace him as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. It was reported that he was expected to maintain the Vatican's opposition to contraception, abortion, euthanasia, ordaining women, homosexuality and lifting the celibacy requirement for priests.Notice that the abuse of children by priests is not a main issue if an issue at all. None of these issues, opposed by the Vatican, were condemned by Jesus Christ, according to the books of Mark, Luke, Matthew, or John.
An article in the Guardianweekly 10-19-07 reported that Pregnancy means death for 500,000 women and girls each year. And often the baby dies too. In spite of this the Catholic Church denies women the right to life, their own precious sacred life by denying women and girls Family Planning Reproductive health care clinics, due to their opposition to birth control and abortion even to save a woman's life.
The mainstream media does not report the news of the Catholic Magisterium's effect on poor women and girls nearly as much as it does the sex abuse of children. I never read the CD's Amnesty International's report about the Catholic "Nicaragua Abortion Law that put Pregnant Cancer Victim At Risk." And another report that gave startling statics about the number of women who died in Nicaragua, from pregnancy complications since the government made a deal with the Catholic church to outlaw abortions even to save a woman's life,has not been in the main- stream media.
I believe that all the media attention to the sex abuse of children by Catholic priests has curtailed this outrageous behavior. I would hope that if the mainstream media reported the suffering and deaths of girls and women due to the Catholic ban on reproductive health care clinics that American Catholics, who ignore the church laws, will have compassion on the women and girls in predominately catholic countries, who are denied their reproductive freedom, and they would rebel against the church laws that discriminate against poor women and girls.
Sioux Rose
GENIE: Excellent post. Because the church (and patriarchal religions, in general) give female rights (inclusive, as you point out, of their right to life) an exceedingly low priority, from this assault on half the population, life as a concept is rendered cheap. This deficit, which becomes the unconscious "norm," leads to all other cheapening of life mechanisms, chief among them, the celebration of war. It is merely mass murder by another term.
From the days I was a child, I realized that if manmade law went against anything my instincts KNEW to be true, fair, and just... I would bypass it where possible.
It was "the law" in Germany for Jews to be roped into extermination camps.
It was the "law" in the U.S. to enslave Black human beings.
It is the law now, to incarcerate persons for smoking a peace plant.
It is the law (unspoken) to not speak against the holy wars now in "progress."
(and there are many other examples)
As another article on CD related, the types of lethal materials now melded to the foods we eat and the water we drink SHOULD constitute criminal negligence. But those who trespass against the rights, property, and well being of others too often are endowed with money, and since the modern church (along with elected representatives in the US) bow down before the 'god' mammon, every decency is readily bypassed; and what replaces it is a public show of PR and the occasional show trial to provide the illusion that some sort of democracy or justice is still alive.
I'm glad the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church is showing. I am waiting for them to admit to their greatest crime against humanity in the form of burning women as alleged witches. While Blacks have seen some redress for slavery, and Jews for the Nazi holocaust, what authority has ever spoken for the decimation of women of wisdom several centuries ago? Then, too, there were all those bloody conversions of the Indigenous slaughtered on the continents of North and South America.
The explorers who came and murdered the natives were taught to believe that persons who did not live the LIES of patriarchal religions were savages that "their God" endorsed "ethnically cleansing"... this sick belief is the mirror image of that held by imbeciles in today's military who go to foreign lands and imagine they have God's endorsement for carving the bullets out of the innocents they gun down. How 'bout the company that had Christian epithets etched into the weapon itself?
There is no higher treason than using the Name of the Deity as grounds for killing or maiming (or stealing from) one's fellow WOman.
When human law reflects Divine Law, then it's something worth respecting and following. Until then, we're watching a calamitous circus of depravity masquerading as the law in our morally broken and spiritually bankrupt land.
Brilliant as usual, Sioux! We call it "democratization" nowadays. Same song, different title!
Sioux Rose
READY: Thank you for the praise. The CD article about what's in our food (and its link to cancer and other degenerative diseases), and the one about the Orwellian Mars rules ambiance of the subways in Washington, D.C. both made me too sick to write. I summoned the psychic stamina to at least post on this thread.
Where I live there are plush Azaleas expressing their joy for living in displays of abundant pinks and reds, and a graceful form of wild Lilac lacing up the trees. The birds are a wonder... the deer, the living embodiment of innocence. And one looks at this garden, this living Eden and wonders how human beings could be given such paradise settings and still elect to build weapons to aim at one another.
Anyone who says "we" in demarcating the patterns of U.S. foreign policy, and the false presumption that there is a consensus towards pathological behaviors, is being dishonest. IF the sheep-types were not indoctrinated through the mass media and its hypnotic suggestions, far more than 50% would show a rejection of war and the war-fare state. The vast majority do not think, their thought process is entirely shaped by a variety of control-group mechanisms, authoritarian religious teachings among them.
Genie, this is an excellent post.
I had a piece printed on this site a couple of years ago. It was about the fact that AI was being boycotted by the church and its members were being called to cut contributions and associations because of AI's new stand regarding women's reproductive rights.
The "deal" with churches was that they would stay out of politics. Oops. Guess they goofed on that one. Aside from taxation, though, with the Pope also being the temporal head of state of Vatican City, he could be investigated by the International Criminal Court. As far as I know, though, the Vatican, or for that matter, Italy, does not have any statute regarding "fair assumption of good service service" from public officials.
Has anyone noticed that Benedict has been quite silent recently? He has been letting his minions do all the talking for him. Perhaps he knows that he has nothing truthful to say that would help his cause and is not eager to be forced to lie thus piling sin upon sin. Moreover, he must be really desperate to put Bill Levada out there on the firing line for him. Levada has his own closetful of skeletons that rattle loudly whenever he speaks on the issue of abusive clergy. The bottom line is that the Roman Catholic clergy is an exclusive boys club that cares for nothing and no one other than the interests of ordained club members. They are proof positive that there is no God. For if there were such a thing as a God who was in the least bit concerned with anything remotely resembling justice in this world, Benedict, Bill Levada and every other member of their holy mafia would have been burnt to a crisp long ago.....or at least had their you-know-whats fall off.
"God" is a meaningless term in the 21st century, in my opinion.
However. The arc of the Universe does indeed bend toward Justice (if i may paraphrase, albeit poorly, Martin Luther King Jr.)
We are witnessing an incredibly profound time in human history. This empire is coming down. The notion of a God - a personification who passes judgements and 'dwells' outside of reality, is the church's version. A punisher king.
So, i think there is no proof in any of this as to non meaningfulness in the known universe. Truth does surface. It may take a long time - in human terms. But it does indeed. Because it is happening here and now.
The abuse of the innocents, which this institution has perpetrated throughout the world for ever so long. The child abuse/sadism is symbolic of all this church has done for almost two thousand years.
And spare me, please, anyone who wants to talk about 'charitable works'. There are many charities in the world. And decent people, of course, are within all of them. This is institutionalized sadism. Pure and simple. It is part of the cult. And anyone who continues to work for them, in my opinion, has no moral leg to stand on.
Yes, i am even talking to you, John Dear. People who live in glass houses. As i have said in the past - he and several others will have credibility with me after they do civil disobedience in front of the Vatican.
hmm, I don't see where the arc of the universe bends toward justice-especially a godless one. Just because the Church is perverted and is on its last legs, doesn't necessarily mean that God is a meaningless term. It depends on the person, if it works for you that God is a meaningless term and means nothing to you then that is fine. If someone else finds God, whatever they conceive that to be, as indispensible to their lives then that is fine, too. More and more, I see the problem comes when human beings try to impose their beliefs on each other.
But I think your right, the church is in a tailspin, and we are in an historic period when it comes to the church.
I appreciate your thoughtful response, frankhammer.
I personally believe in a Creative Source and am very spiritually oriented. I just meant the word itself, like many others, has become sort of etched in stone.
The idea that there is meaninfulness imbued within life itself, as i have witnessed and lived it, is proof to me of what some may call "God".
And i find synchronicity to be "God's" way of saying "hello".
rita
I see, that's true. It is more of a catch-all phrase that has lost a specific meaning, so to speak. Thank you...rita
Pretty funny, really, if it weren't so tragic for the victims and for those who still have "faith."
It is also very good news, politically. As the Archbishop of Canterbury was reckless enough to point out, the Catholic Church has forfeited all credibility - and more to the point, moral standing.
Moral standing is extremely important to those who pose as moral authorities. It's gone, probably for good. While the Church still has the legal right to speak, they have lost any moral right to be HEARD. If Benedict is quiet lately, it's because his pronouncements are likely to be met with: "And who are YOU to preach to us?"
Given the Church's long, bloody history of genocidal murder, it never did have that standing; but contemporary crimes, committed by and affecting living people, make the news and have a far greater impact.
Despite all this, the American bishops, for all their horrendous record, played a major, public part in inflicting anti-abortion provisions on the so-called Health Care Reform Bill. Apparently our Congressional stooges didn't have the nerve to respond appropriately - as in, "how many boys have YOU raped?" (I'm aware there were girls, too, but it's the boys that have gotten the publicity.)
But the public should have no such compunctions, any time they try to take a "moral" position in public.
I think it should be painfully obvious by now that the RCC is hopelessly mired in the Middle Ages, and its only true interest is self-preservation. The individual members of the Laity are born and die, but The Church is eternal, and must be preserved at all costs. Too bad about the harm to women and children, but that's just collateral damage.
"No more blood for oil"
It keeps just getting worse and worse. The pope should resign for the good of the church, and an emergency council should be called. It is time to end the vows of celibacy, and allow women and deacons to become priests, and to cooperate with the authorities on the prosecution of the guilty priests. Might be too late for the church, though, and that might not be a bad thing, which was hard for me to conclude since I have a catholic background.
I wish they could do that. He has 'immunity' by virtue of being the head of a state. It's time to strip that recognition from the ghost of the Roman Empire. Then take the pervert in chief to the Hague.
There is a campaign gaining steam in Mexico to force the nazi to resign.