Sometimes you would think everyday is opposite day in regards to the media.<\/p>\n
The one public leader who did the most covertly to help the Jewish people during WWII is of course\u00a0vilified\u00a0by the media as being anti-Semitic and not doing anything.<\/p>\n
Now we have the case of one Cardinal who as he became aware of individual cases of priestly abuse and later the scope of the abuse scandal \u00a0reacted to the problem. \u00a0As Pope he \u00a0is now of course\u00a0vilified\u00a0as not only not doing enough, but through his actions contributing to the problem.<\/p>\n
The media’s opposite day though does not just effect reporting in regards to the Pope. \u00a0Mostly all reporting on the Catholic Church is backwards as if every story is run through a simple inverter.<\/p>\n
Now apparently the media is under the impression that laicization confers an ontological change in regards to a sexual abuser. \u00a0That somehow once a priest involved in the depravity of sexual abuse when laicized all problems will subsequently go away. \u00a0I guess Stephen Kiesle didn’t get the message since after he was laicized he got married and then went on to abuse others after this. \u00a0For the media it does not matter that the priest in this case was already removed from ministry by his Bishop.<\/p>\n
You have to wonder why it is that the ire is directed to then-Cardinal Ratzinger and not the California courts who gave Stephen Kiesle a light sentence and then destroyed the evidence after a two year probation.<\/p>\n
The media does an excellent service when it exposes how abuse was mishandled, hidden, or the problem shuffled off to another parish\/diocese. \u00a0Great evil has been done by those who contributed to the problem instead of protecting their flock. \u00a0It is hard to come up with a good reason why bishops would shuffle abusive priests in the first place. \u00a0It is safe to say there motives were not to inflict abuse on more victims. \u00a0Perhaps some thought that treatment programs would actually work or that a change of scenery would be just the thing — An almost criminal\u00a0naivet\u00e9. \u00a0Or simply as so many do they justified the act to hide scandal or to make a problem seem to just go away. \u00a0Sin always twists reason until so many vapid justification might seem actually defensible. \u00a0Add to this a denial of exactly what they had done and the efforts to hide this we came to the current situation that first broke out here, then places in Europe, and sadly we will find the same in other countries as time goes on. \u00a0I have wondered why so many Irish bishops have resigned and yet only one American Cardinal did.\u00a0It is not as if we didn’t have plenty of protectors of abusers here. \u00a0Maybe the Irish bishops had more shame for their actions, I just don’t know. \u00a0We have had plenty of diocese pay out millions to those abused, yet the enablers of abuse are pretty much left in place. \u00a0I wish that famous Catholic guilt would have been more effective for those destined to wear millstones if they do not repent.<\/p>\n
These cases also go to the problem of what you do with sexual abusers generally? Priestly abusers must of course be removed from ministry, but I wonder if just washing your hands of them and releasing them to the general public is the best process? \u00a0Those involved with sexual abuse are rarely cured of this and as history has shown will go on and abuse others even if they had spent a term in prison. Societies answer of having a list of sexual abusers where people can find if they are living in their\u00a0neighborhoods\u00a0hasn’t prevented abuse in some cases. \u00a0The Church just can’t send abusers off to a remote monastery to live out the rest of their lives. \u00a0Abusers often see themselves as the victim and are unlikely to remain there. \u00a0The Church also can not run a prison for such individuals, that is the role of society which unfortunately is prone to releasing abusers pack into society. \u00a0Considering the recidivism rates for sexual abuse should the sentences become lifetime sentences? \u00a0There is the case of Alessandro Serenelli who attempted to rape Saint Maria Goretti and who did repent of his act and later lived a life of penance. \u00a0Cases like this are rare and most abusers are not helped via the world of psychiatry. These are the questions we should be grasping with instead of the stupdity \u00a0of trying to link Pope Benedict XVI as a problem in regards to priest abuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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