I’ve been trying to think of the right word, and I think I’ve finally managed it – “stupefying”. This is in connection with Fr Cantalamessa’s remarks comparing the current criticism of the Roman Catholic church hierarcy with anti-semitism, this in relation to the on-going child-abuse scandals that are rocking the Roman Empire.
I don’t like to kick a man when he is down, and Fr Cantalamessa is clearly challenged on a wide number of fronts, including cerebrally.
The Catholic Church is in a totally indefensible position on the abuse front; the Pope himself is accused of failing to take action (always the easy course) in his earlier career when presented with clear evidence of wrong-doing.
No, the only possible reaction was to assume great humility and sorrow and issue grovelling apologies. No doubt the usual politicians’ standby soundbite would not have gone amiss: “Lessons have been learned.”
I give Fr Cantalamessa some credit for saying what he thinks instead of passing his comments through a gruesome PR spin merchant, but unfortunately he has got it completely wrong. And it’s no good the Vatican claiming that these remarks “did not represent its official view”. They were after all printed in full on the front page of the Vatican’s own newspaper “L’Osservatore Romano.”
As Peter Isely of SNAP (survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) put it much better than I could:
“They’re sitting in the papal palace, they’re experiencing a little discomfort, and they’re going to compare themselves to being rounded up … and sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz? You cannot be serious.”
Porr old Fr Cantalamessa should get out and about into the real world a bit more. Someone should send him a copy of Mother Theresa’s biography or “Five Chimneys”
Has he seen “Schindler’s List”, even though what was shown there was extremely mild compared to the horror of the reality?
Sorry Fr Cantalamessa, you score nul points on this one ….
Is this a need for change that will become unstoppable for the Catholic Church?
St Peters
I approach this subject with some hesitation. It’s a free world, and how people choose to organise themselves is basically their affair; freedom of association and all that. However, all freedoms are both a personal matter and an absolute right as long as they do not impinge on the rights and freedoms of others. So, in for a penny ……
The Catholic Church’s insistence on celibacy for their priests’ is obviously absurd. It is all very well in theory – “they can then concentrate on serving God” – if you (somewhat bizarrely in my opinion) choose to make that argument. The problem is that Man is NOT a theoretical animal. Sexual abstinence is alien to most models of Homo Sapiens that roll off the production line. It may be the preferred CHOICE that works for some, or even many, but forcing it on priests just DOES NOT WORK.
In recent years, there have been endless scandals in the Catholic Church about the abuse of children by priests, to the point where their policy in fact makes a total mockery of the vast edifice and bureaucracy that their Church is.
There was (or rather is) the dreadful case of the abuse in Ireland going on for decades and involving the most appalling abuse covered up at the highest levels. Now there is an on-going crisis in Germany, with churches and priests all over the country suspected of child-abuse. There are plenty of other examples we know about, and no doubt many we don’t.
And the word “cover-up” is deadly, of course. As soon as an organism evolves – and I find an amoeba, the Church, a company, a political party all alike in this respect – its first instinct is to survive and multiply. And so we have today the grisly spectacle of a Bishop apologising for covering up a priest’s paedophilia. The (usually wrongly) perceived needs of the organism almost ALWAYS take precedence over the law, humanity and decency. Rather than deal effectively and openly (and THAT is what this Blog is all about) with a real problem, the Church very often sweeps the problem under the carpet in the hope that it will go away.
Safe, or in harm's way?
Only of course (like the toxic effects of sub-prime insanity) a serious problem does NOT usually self-heal. Would the Bishop try out this policy with a toothache? I doubt it; he’s know it would only get worse and whack him in the midriff at some stage. So WHY do they do it with abuse cases in their own Church?
No, as long as you have this absurd dogma in the Catholic Church, you will have abuse. And the point is, as soon as you get abuse, it concerns us ALL. We then DO have a right to stick our nose into the Catholic Church’s affairs, or so I maintain. No man is an island ……
Unfortunately, the larger the institution and especially where it concerns beliefs, creeds or whatever (and companies are often similar) the more difficult it is to give up a long-held shibboleth even in the face of the most overwhelming evidence that it is time to “move on”.
If the Pope thinks that all this is helping his particular organism to survive, he is – I believe – sorely mistaken. Celibacy is unnatural – period. Man is HUMAN (sorry to state the obvious). Sex is an integral part of humanity (for the vast majority). But all that is theory and opinion; the point is, the policy JUST DOES NOT WORK, thus leading to multiple and repeated cases of abuse. There may be hand-wrenching, apologies, investigations and promises to put the house in order, but as long as the Pope insists on celibacy, there will be abuse.
And what for? It is all so POINTLESS! Is the Catholic Church maintaining that , for example, the Church of England (CofE) is in some way heretical? If marriage for priests works OK for the CofE, then why not for Catholics? In reality, this dogmatism is only the dead-weight of centuries of tradition, but we should cast off dead weights in the interests of innocent children – and of course (they are human, too) of priests themselves.
Though not a believer, I also sometimes wonder what God would think. In fact, trying to empathize with God is one of my favourite pastimes. Looking down on all this, wouldn’t he be inclined to think the Catholic Church is barmy? How could he POSSIBLY (if he is the God I think he must be) want his humanly-frail priests to be celibate if it means (AS IT DOES) the regular and repeated abuse of children?
First, here’s the story that has been fairly widely reported. While I am quoting from a BBC News website, the story has appeared in other journals.
NY cab
A Bangladeshi taxi driver in New York City has gone out of his way to track down the person who left thousands of dollars in cash in the back of his cab.
Mukul Asadujjaman, a medical student, drove nearly 80kms (50 miles) to an address he found with the money.
He left his phone number when he found no one at home. The money belonged to an Italian grandmother visiting the US.
Mr Asadujjaman was offered a reward, but he turned it down saying that as a devout Muslim he could not accept it.
Felicia Lettieri, of Pompeii, Italy, and six relatives had taken two cabs on Christmas Eve, Newsday newspaper reported.
Mrs Lettieri, 72, left her purse behind, with more than $21,000 of the group’s travelling money, jewellery worth thousands more, and some of their passports.
Her sister, Francesca Lettieri, 79, of Long Island, said the honest driver had saved her family’s vacation.
“We really love what he did,” she said.
‘Be honest’
A gracious Asadujjaman was quoted by the newspaper as saying that he may be broke, but he was also honest.
“My mother is my inspiration. She always said to be honest and work hard.”
Mr Asadujjaman called a friend with a car and drove some 80km to a Long Island address in the purse.
No one was at home, so he left his phone number and a note, the report said.
His phone rang a short time later and he drove back to return the bag.
“They were so, so, so happy,” Mr Asadujjaman told the paper.
Asked if he was tempted to keep the cash, Mr Asadujjaman said the money would have allowed him more time to study, “but my heart said this is not good”.
He also turned down a reward, saying he could not accept it as a devout Muslim, Newsday reported.
“I’m needy, but I’m not greedy,” he said. “It’s better to be honest.”
Mr Asadujjaman is not the first honest American-Bangladeshi cabbie to hit the headlines for noble behaviour.
In 2007, driver Osman Chowdhury returned a lost bag containing diamond rings worth $500,000 to the rightful owner.
After many years of coverage of Iraq on the television I was surprised to see reference to an Anglican church in Iraq, because I was convinced that the country was completely based on the Muslim religion, with the main two sided Shia, and Sunni always fighting each other.
Iraq, if you follow the news is still considered a dangerous place, and yet some of the major airlines regularly fly through its air airspace, and so the other day when flying north from the Middle East I was able to look down on the very different countryside of Iraq.
Iran to the East is mostly high ground, mountain regions and few obvious signs of habitation other than the main cities. Saudi Arabia to the West by contrast is sand.
Iraq was very green and seemingly flat. The two major rivers Euphrates, and Tigress were clearly visible, and over Baghdad you could see what must have been one of the grand palaces of Sadaam Hussein. All the pictures I have in my mind are from that which I have seen in the paper or seen on the television.
I looked up on the magic website the Anglican church in Baghdad, and there discovered the history of Christianity in Iraq, and the role the church has played in the past, and the work it continues to do today.
The Vicar, Andrew White, suffers with Multiple Sclerosis and has seen many things during his work. Until now it has not been interesting to show such an image of Iraq, but now it makes news. If only we could show good in the world rather than sensationalist detail.
Learning from Dogs 