Sicily II – Living Church

To take his mind off the continuing saga of his scandalous priests and bishops, the Pope should travel to Sicily. He would be mighty pleased. In Sicily, the Church is still getting it right and Mass, even midweek, still fills the churches. Even the young in their 20s and 30s – those you rarely see in church nowadays – attend mass in Sicily. 

Holidays, such as that of Santa Rita are even more festive:  

The church is overflowing; priests are taking confessions wherever you look.

Reporting a full house to the Papa di tutti Papi?

The Pope and Berlusconi

I find myself in the curious position of empathising with the Catholic Church.

In reference to the latest disclosures about Berlusconi and the young girls he is alleged to have paid to have sex with, Cardinal Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference said, “Whoever accepts a public position must understand the sobriety, personal discipline, sense of measure and honour that come with it.” The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, added that the Roman Catholic Church urged greater “morality” and “legality” in public life.

Should the fact that its own priests and bishops have screwed, raped and abused the vulnerable prevent the Church from preaching to others about their behaviour? True, those Catholic priests rather forgot all about “sobriety, personal discipline, sense of measure and honour” that apparently come with public office. But preaching about morals is the gist of the Church’s business and the Church would have to close shop if prevented from preaching to others. And what then?

I wonder what Latin for Chutzpah is?

Better Late than Never (II)

There are probably more prostitutes that have read Double Cross: The Code of the Catholic Church than there are prostitutes who have waited for the papal approval to start using condoms. And yet, better late than never.

The Pope started out by talking of male prostitutes – where contraception is not an issue anyway. The Vatican has widened the approval to include female prostitutes. By talking of prostitutes, the Pope really circumvented the contraception issue but the floodgates have probably been opened now.

Fewer and fewer Catholics in the developed world observed the Church’s teaching on contraception and what the Church was left with were poor people in third world countries dying from AIDS because their bishops told them not to use condoms. At long last, the Pope has understood how scandalous this state of affairs was. Thank God?

The Pope’s Latest Non Apology

Earlier today, the Pope has come out with yet another expression of regret on the subject of sexual abuse.

Has he finally managed to get it right?

Again, the Pope spoke of “… sins of priests came to light — particularly the abuse of the little ones,” adding that “in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation…”

The Pope has still not accepted that he is answerable for the COVER UP by the Church, popes, cardinals and bishops. He continues to go on about the wrong kind of priests who found their way into the Church.

Will he ever? I do not think so.

Don't Fire the Pope

The following is from an interview I gave several days ago to an American radio station:

The recent media hype surrounding the Catholic Church includes calls for Pope Benedict to resign. Should he? There are currently two known cases that connect Benedict personally to abuse. As Archbishop of Munich and Freising, he did not prevent the reassignment of a paedophile priest and as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he acquiesced to the request of an abusive priest and thwarted his defrocking.

Up to now, nothing has come to light that would suggest that Benedict had ever abused anyone or that he knowingly allowed abuse to take place. Indeed, no malice can be ascribed to either Benedict or to most other senior Church figures.

Instead of evil, what we have is total blindness: Blindness to what is important and what is not. In other words, their values were corrupted. Sadly, the brutal end result is the same as if they had been evil.

There is no doubt that Benedict is guilty. He is guilty of being not only part of the machine but also an important, significant and formative part the Catholic Church machine: A machine that had systematically allowed abuse to take place under its auspices. A machine that has a history of acting evilly in other spheres of life too. But Benedict is not guilty of abuse; it is the Catholic Church that is guilty. Therefore it is not a personal resignation that we need but rather a total change in the way this institution operates.

We should ask ourselves what had enabled such corrupt values to thrive in an institution that is all about love and hope, an institution that considers itself to be a lighthouse to humanity. The Pope’s resignation would cause an earthquake within the Catholic Church. Such an earthquake could be helpful. Yet, it might not necessarily produce the change we need. Let there be no doubt, society would have closed this institution had it been secular. Those who run the Catholic Church should be aware of the risk in not making the necessary changes.

Member of the Israeli Knesset tells Pope: You are Not Welcome.

A friend has sent me an article that appeared in the Israeli press, in which Nitzan Horovitz, a member of Israel’s parliament tells the Pope that he is not welcome in Israel.

 

Curiously, Horovitz is not a member of the right wing majority running the Jewish state but a member of parliament representing Meretz, a very small left of centre party. As such, I expected him to concentrate his efforts on sorting out Jewish religious coercion in Israel before telling the, at least formally, spiritual representative of a sixth of the world’s population that he is not welcome in Israel.

 

Horovitz, unnecessarily, hauls Ratzinger’s membership as a 14 year-old boy of the Hitler youth. He also makes much of the holocaust denying Bishop Williamson saga. The Williamson affair is an annoying mishap but it is a mishap. I do not believe that the Pope was aware of the holocaust denial of Williamson when he readmitted him to the Church. Popes run big operations and whoever had arranged for this schismatic group to return to the fold of the Church would not have bothered to report to the Pope that there was a problem with Williamson.

 

I fully agree with Horovitz that it is wrong to oppose the use of condoms and that especially in Africa this is a significant obstacle in the fight against AIDS. I also agree that gays should not be discriminated against in any area, including matrimony. I do not quite understand what business it is of this Jewish member of the Israeli parliament whether Catholic priests may or may not get married. They are not likely to be his constituents, are they?

 

My credentials are clear: In Double Cross: The Code of the Catholic Church, I called for the Catholic Church to be dismantled. But, Horovitz’s personal attack on the Pope is misguided. The problem is not the persona of this man but the institution that is unable to change.