Whatever the sins of the media in covering abuse cases, and they are scarlet, the Church has to look at itself.
The Church teaches that torture is wrong but seems to ignore that teaching when it comes to itself. This slow water torture over years over the sins of the 70′-90’s is too much to take. It was the U.S. and some other places. Then it was Ireland. Now Germany.
If you are a Bishop anywhere in the world, please please get it all out in the open now. We must stop the never ending cycle. Clean up your act and lay your cards on the table, now.
The media will always find excuses, that is true enough. But let’s not give it to them. The only way to put this horrible time into our past is to admit it, all of it. Now. Purposely withholding sin in confession is, in and of itself, a serious sin. The same is true with this situation.. For any Bishop to knowingly continue to conceal any of these cases is terribly destructive to the Church.
Admit it all.
Admit it now.
And let’s be done with it.
April 5, 2010 at 5:46 am
And if the Church feels the need to make financial restitution to the victims of abuse, make direct payments to these individuals. Cut out these lawyers that have made careers out of exploiting these victims.
If the Church has doubts about any claims, then fight. We are Christians, not doormats. False claimants are every bit as evil as abusive priests, and evil must be fought tooth and nail.
April 5, 2010 at 6:29 am
Any chance that the bishops could also clear out non-abusive non-celibate gays in the clergy? That's a major disease reservoir for reinfection. (I shudder to think if there are any such among the bishops…)
April 5, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Great post, Patrick. I completely agree.
April 5, 2010 at 1:39 pm
The Churches biggest mistake was taking direction from the secular world in the 60s onward regarding homosexuals, pedophiles, and sexual behavior. The Psychological community advised the powers that be that homosexual men could live normal lives and that pedophiles could be rehabilitated. The Church should never have abandoned the Gospels in favor of "modern scientific thought." The Gospels have always been clear that homosexuality is an abomination. As such, homosexuals have NEVER been allowed to become priests. The Gospels have always taught that anyone who injures the children, too, are an abomination. It would be better that they have a "millstone around their neck and cast into the sea." Sadly, the modernation of the Church since the 60s has meant listening to the world–surely they must know more than that archaic old Church. The ONLY solution is for the Pope to totally DENOUNCE the "psychological experiment" and establish policys that call for IMMEDIATE laicizing of ANY cleric who has been found guilty of such heinous and inconceivable crimes. Any Bishop who knowingly keeps quiet should also be harshly punished. Enough already.
April 5, 2010 at 2:02 pm
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April 5, 2010 at 2:12 pm
"Getting it all out now" will satisfy no one who is making these attacks, and is probably logistically impossible. Apologies , resignations, restitutions will not satisfy the opposition, only the banishment of the Catholic Church completely from the public square, (or better yet the complete collapse). This will be the game plan for the LGBT, free sex , pro abortion sector of society for a generation. Remember they hated Christ before they hated us.
April 5, 2010 at 2:34 pm
And you think that this is the ONLY scandal the Catholic Church needs to address now?
I agree with you that this particular scandal needs to be addressed accurately and fully and now, but there is so much more, Mr. Archbold.
But do keep up the good fight!
April 5, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Who can address the claims made within this article, specifically in regards to Fox News' treatment?
http://www.newshounds.us/2010/04/04/gretchen_carlson_jim_pinkerton_pushing_pro_pope_propaganda.php
April 5, 2010 at 3:23 pm
I'm not quite sure what can be done. Imagine you are a priest who was accused of touching a few boys in 1968. You got transferred and that was the end of it. Should you go to the media and 'confess'? What about the boys who are now men, whose families never pressed the issue after it was brought to the attention of the bishop and who were satisfied that Father was moved? Maybe they need this confession, maybe not. What if you are the Bishop who took over the Diocese in 1988 and saw this in a file? Should you now do something?
April 5, 2010 at 4:00 pm
I like the idea in a comment about paying restitution DIRECTLY to victims who were honestly hurt and keep the lawyers out of it! I wish someone would look into how much what paid to lawyers in Los Angeles and Orange County, for it seemed as though Bishop Mahoney was passing out cash like it was monopoly money for a time there ( yet there was still enough money to build that eyesore of what they call the Cathedral ). I can bet a few of those payouts were to people that were never abused in any way.
As for putting it all on the table, I agree, but I hope they emphasize on the small percentage of priests that were involved and how in the US, there were only 6 accusations last year. Bringing up 50 year old cases makes me wonder why or how so many people kept
quiet; and that's not blaming the victims, but the parents, friends, bishops, doctors, and authorities that kept quiet or swept it under the rug for 50 years.
I attend mass at an abbey here in Orange County and I know I would trust any one of those Norbertine Fathers to be alone with my children a heck of a lot more than with any public school employee!
–
Lisa
April 5, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I think the blog article can be taken in different ways. If you mean that now that the abuse has been brought to the open and we know certain individuals were guilty of kicking things under the carpet, then yes I agree that we need to remain ever vigilant and recognize that some of the old ways need to be repaired.
However, if you mean that nothing is being done at all and we need to start, then I must say I disagree.
April 5, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Brian, the blog post you linked to has factual errors (where it contains facts) and hints at things (like the defrocking case taking "years"). CDF was not in charge of all molestation cases until 2001. Cases involving the abuse of the Sacraments (i.e., propositioning a penitent in a confessional) did go through CDF, and investigations take time…not to mention the appeals process.
Fox News is asking valid questions. Questions that some Catholics (among other groups) are asking…namely, why is the current media onslaught occurring, and why now?
Newshounds appears to be completely biased against Fox News, so anything posted there should be taken with a rather large grain of salt. Maybe a whole salt lick.
I think it's good that Fox News is questioning the motives behind the lastest round of opinion-masked-as-news.
April 6, 2010 at 1:22 am
Whoopsie.
Could it be that Mr. Archbold finds himself on the other side of the fence, believing that there is true and persistent sexual corruption in the Church, covered up in a methodical way by its bureaucracy…and maybe… just maybe… the media has done us some sort of service in exposing it?
Now, how shall we disable his outrage? Let's try this:
He's crazy, obviously. Like Sinead O'Connor. Maybe even bald – just like her. Or a lesbian with a butchy nom-de-plume!
A liberal, absolutely.
He hates the traditional church and the traditional liturgy that B16 represents.
Could he be a secret atheist? Like Christopher Hitchens?
As a blogger, he's a member of the media, so his observations are tainted and biased. Scarlet to the core.
He's a socialist who hates organized religion.
He's a bishop-basher who doesn't know the proper place of a layperson.
He's exaggerated the number of pedophilia cases in his mind -really, there aren't that many among priests, as compared to the general population of deviants.
He's downplaying the responsibility of parents, whose fault it is to have trusted Fr. Chester T. Molester on the altar-boy camping trip in the first place.
He plainly wants to end celibacy in the Church as part of his liberal creed, because, as a progressive, he believes that a life without sex naturally turns men into deviants.
He can't understand that it's not pederasty when the altar boy/novice/student/penitent is over 18.
He has no understanding of Vatican politics, where an isolated Pope is kept in a state of perpetual unawareness because he is:
Not a good politician!
An ascetic who is constantly in prayer and cannot be disturbed!
A man of an earlier, simpler time!
A victim of a pushy papal household!
He has no trust that this could never happen to the one, true Church or her priests, and so has given in to the sin of despair, unfortunate man.
Oh, fellow Catholics! You have so many ways to make Mr. Archbold suffer. Which will you choose today?
April 6, 2010 at 1:41 am
Blackrep, I know that you're angry. Please don't let it turn into malice.
April 6, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Patrick – oddly you are repeating what Sinead O'connor said in the Larry King interview. Who woulda thunk?
While I agree in theory, in practice I don't know how this could ever be accomplished. The abuse scandal is a culmination of decades of wayward "spirit of Vatican II" policy that trickled down from the very top (see: JP II). JP II was unfortunately responsible for direct cover-up, specifically transferring Cardinal Law and Levada to the Vatican rather than setting an example of "laying it out on the table" as you suggest. In other words, there are too many people (alive and dead) that would be implicated in this scandal were it all to be opened up.
Good or bad, it's just not gonna happen.
April 7, 2010 at 4:22 am
HERE HERE!