Catholic Culture Clash Links 12-23-10

Fr. Rafic Greische, an Egyptian priest, told Vatican Radio that he believes that radical Muslims are trying to rid the Middle East of Christians.  There is certainly a lot of evidence to back up his claim. One such incident which we can look at where radical Muslims targeted Christians was the massacre in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation in Iraq during a Mass.  It is clear that these radical Muslims have no respect for other places of worship or other religions. He says that Christians in the Middle East face private and public discrimination.  This I do not doubt for one second.  These Muslims want to create another Caliphate, where they rule the world.  The Pope, in a recent address, even called Christians the most persecuted of religious groups. 


Now, my Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik has been accused by an advocacy group of ordering the destruction of records detailing pedophilia and other forms of sexual abuse by priests while he worked in Green Bay, Wis.   Bishop Zubik is denies that he destroyed documents or had any part in a cover up and says to the the contrary, that the diocesan practice in Green bay was not to destroy documents in priest files if there was litigation involved.  I tend to believe Bishop Zubik because he is conservative and as much as 99% (if not all) of the cases of sexual abuse and cover ups were committed by liberal priests and/or bishops.  U.S. Catholic posted a response from the Diocese of Green Bay: 


"In order to be in compliance with the Federal Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996, the diocese cannot, and does not, retain psychological reports on priests, deacons and employees in personnel files. After civil litigation was commenced against the diocese in January 2008, at no time were documents pertinent to the lawsuit disposed of."


The Diocese of Green Bay has had a record retention policy and schedule since 2006, noted the statement. The policy "applies to all documents created or received by all departments within the diocese. The purpose of the policy and schedules is to ensure that there is a comprehensive and timely review of documents that should be maintained and preserved for specific periods of time and for documents that can be disposed of."


What it looks like is that the Diocese of Green Bay is not allowed to hold onto health insurance records because of the privacy law known as HIPPA. 


The Heresy Hunter has an excellent post on the climate and conditions of  the region in which the Holy Family crossed over to Bethlehem. 

Pope Benedict: Unsparing in Analysis of Sex Abuse Scandal

Let us continue to pray for the healing of all the innocent children who were abused by priests. 

From CatholicCulture.org:

Pope Benedict in his address stated:
"We must accept this humiliation as an exhortation to truth and a call to renewal. Only the truth saves. We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred. We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen. We must discover a new resoluteness in faith and in doing good. We must be capable of doing penance. We must be determined to make every possible effort in priestly formation to prevent anything of the kind from happening again." 


He said that the prevailing attitudes of the 1960s and 1970s broke down the moral consensus against sexual exploitation.


Pope Benedict recalled that “to a degree we could not have imagined, we came to know of abuse of minors committed by priests who twist the sacrament into its antithesis, and under the mantle of the sacred profoundly wound human persons in their childhood, damaging them for a whole lifetime.”

He quoted from a mystical vision of St. Hildegard of Bingen, who said:

For my Bridegroom’s wounds remain fresh and open as long as the wounds of men’s sins continue to gape. And Christ’s wounds remain open because of the sins of priests.

Letter Shows that Pope Benedict Tried to Remove Abusers as Early as 1988

I know there are some people out there who think that Pope Benedict XVI is part of the reason for the slow reaction and action taken during the priest sex abuse scandals but those people are wrong or mistaken in their conclusion.  A letter has surfaced which is further evidence that Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Ratzinger, did pretty much everything he could to speed up the process of removing the priests who committed abuse.  Before Cardinal Ratzinger was Pope, he sought as early as 1988 to find quicker ways to permanently remove those priests who raped and molested children but was snubbed.  He wanted to remove pedophile priests but was stonewalled by Canon Law (Church Law). 



From WTOP: "The documentation was included in an article in L'Osservatore Romano explaining an upcoming revision of church law, which was last updated in 1983."  The entire correspondence can be read here.

"The Feb. 19, 1988 letter shows he sought changes far earlier given that his office was already hearing from bishops who were having troubledealing with pedophiles."

"Ratzinger at the time was following laws and rules introduced by his predecessor Pope John Paul II, which largely left punishing such priests in the hands of local bishops, who often decided against conducting church trials because they found them too cumbersome."


"John Paul had also made it tougher to leave the priesthood, hoping to stem the tide of thousands of priests who left in the 1970s to marry.A consequence of that policy was that, as the priest sex abuse scandal arose in the U.S., bishops were no longer able to sidestep the lengthy church trial necessary for so-called laicization."

"Ratzinger's request for faster procedures was rejected by Cardinal Jose Rosalio Castillo Lara, who headed the Vatican commission responsible for implementing the 1983 code."

"In a March 10, 1988 letter to Ratzinger, Castillo Lara said simplifying the procedures "would endanger the fundamental right of defense" of the priest while straying from the church's legal-based system, according to the letter reprinted in L'Osservatore."


The Rev. Davide Cito, a canon lawyer at Rome's Pontifical Holy Cross University, said the 1983 code was problematic both in that it left it largely up to bishops to decide whether to intervene and at the same time discouraged them from taking tough action against abusers.


"What they want to do now is to make a penal law that is applied seriously, that will be more concrete and obligatory" for bishops, he said.

I will continue to keep those who were abused at the hands of priests in my thoughts and prayers.  May God's healing touch come upon them.

Pope Benedict XVI: Speaks on Priest Sex Abuse Scandals & Is Promoting Christian Unity in Great Britain

Before Pope XVI landed in Great Britain today he addressed reporters questions on the priest sex abuse scandals.  First, I must say that the priests who mistreated or sexual abused young boys and girls actions are unconscionable, criminal, and evil.  We must make sure that this type of evil is never allowed to occur again in the Church again.  I have previously posted my thoughts on the abuse issue and the attacks by the liberal media on Pope Benedict here and here on my first blog which is more of a political blog than a theological one.

Pope Benedict responded by stating that the Church was not vigilant enough or fast enough in responding to the problem.

"These revelations were for me a shock, and a great sadness. It is difficult to understand how this perversion of the priestly ministry was possible," he said.

The Pope also said it was inexplicable to him how a priest who has promised at his ordination to act in the person of Christ, as a good shepherd, could "fall into this perversion."
 
"It is a great sadness. It is a sadness, also, that the authority of the church was not vigilant enough, was not sufficiently fast and decisive in taking the necessary measures," he said.

 
Pope Benedict XVI said the Church is experiencing a period of penitence and humility and is making an effort to renew its "absolute sincerity."
From CNS: After a study by a British judge, Lord Nolan, in 2001 the bishops adopted a series of measures to protect children, including setting up a national office for child protection and encouraging the appointment of trained child protection officers in each parish and school. The bishops also made a commitment to turn every case of alleged child abuse over to the police.
 
The Pope said that the Church's 'first priority' is the recovery of sex abuse victims and then he laid out three things that are necessary for that to happen.
 
The first was to help victims overcome their traumas, and restore their trust in the message of Christ, he said.

The second aspect, he said, was to mete out justice to guilty priests and help make sure they are excluded from any contact with young people. At the same time, he said, "we know this is a sickness, and free will does not function," so in a sense the church is helping protect the perpetrators from themselves.

The third element, the pope added, was prevention, particularly in the choice of candidates for the priesthood, so that future cases of abuse can be avoided.

The Pope urged Great Britain to preserve their Christian tradition and warned against
"aggressive" forms of secularism and atheism.  The Pope's meesage seems quite appropos for America, also.

Pope Benedict stated that Christian witness was also evident during World War II against a "Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society," he said.


"As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the 20th century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society," he said.

'The pope outlined an argument for the place of religion in public affairs, emphasizing that British saints and other leading Christians have "shaped the nation for good at the deepest level." While Great Britain today strives to be a multicultural society, he said, it must respect the traditional values and cultural expressions "that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate." '

'He said the British media have a big responsibility in shaping the ideas and culture of its society and in promoting the "honesty, respect and fair-mindedness" for which the country is known.'  Pope Benedict is very charitable with his words since before his visit the British media flung around enough nasty insults and mudslinging to dirty at least 100 pigs thoroughly with mud in the trough.

Ian Martin, a Scottish Presbyterian from the WSJ, defends the Pope against the insults being made by ultraliberal forces. He points out that the BBC Radio 4 asked: Shouldn't the Pope be making his church more relevant? Shouldn’t he be reforming the Catholic church so that it fits in with the modern world?
Martin said "Agree or disagree with the pope, but I would have thought it obvious that that is precisely not what he should be doing. Rightly or wrongly, he thinks his institution has universal truths to offer and that it is the modern world that could learn from its teachings rather than the other way round."

Ian Martin posted part of a thought-provoking piece written by Michael Burleigh:

“Secularism is at the heart of Benedict’s concerns. By this the Pope does not mean the delimitation of Church and State, the sacred and profane – which is intrinsic to Christian culture as well as political society since the Reformation – but the amnesiac eradication of one of the principal roots of Western civilization and the deliberate marginalization of all religion to the private sphere. In its stead has come a society that thinks its existential despairs can be ameliorated by limitless consumer goods, or worse, by a state that racks up fathomless amounts of debt so as to throw money at problems that may have no material resolution.While truly sinister philosophies and technologies, all camouflaged with the rhetoric of choice and freedom, infiltrate how we regard and treat the old or sick, or play around with the building blocks of life itself, the public space is dominated by a culture several notches below that of the late Roman empire. At least their satirists were amusing and gladiators did not blub copiously when they triumphed in their violent version of “Rome’s Got Talent”.

The churches are pushed to the margins, licensed at most as a pick-up service for the most intractable social problems, or for when life finally brushes up against mortality. Their room to exercise their traditional right to accord praise or blame is being curtailed, day in, day out, by the tyranny vociferous minorities exert over majorities through laws preventing “discrimination”, which rarely favour Christians themselves.”

'Queen Elizabeth also underlined the importance of Britain's Christian heritage and told the pope that his visit also is a reminder of "the Christian contribution to the encouragement of world peace and to the economic and social development of the less prosperous countries of the world." '

'The queen said that because religion is so important to national identity, the relationship between different churches and different faiths is "a fundamental factor in the necessary cooperation within and between nation states. It is, therefore, vital to encourage a greater mutual and respectful understanding." '

'The queen, who serves as governor general of the Anglican Church of England, told the pope, "We know from experience that through committed dialogue, old suspicions can be transcended and a greater mutual trust established." '

' "I know that reconciliation was a central theme in the life of Cardinal John Henry Newman, for whom you will be holding a Mass of beatification on Sunday. A man who struggled with doubt and uncertainty, his contribution to the understanding of Christianity continues to influence many," she said.'

Let us continue to pray for the Pope's visit to Great Britain as he spreads the message of Christian unity to the people there.

Catholic Culture Clash 7-9-10

Sexual lyrics linked to pre-coital activities.

Kagan's "Don't ask Don't Tell" policies.

Cardinal Schonborn desecrates Mass

Scientists have developed 'fake' blood for use on battlefield.

Women's ordination is a grave offense, and sex abuse news.

Church Abuse Scandal, New York Times & the Problem with “hucusque vigens”

A canon lawyer and The New York Times are in agreement - that the Church's canon-law system exacerbated the sex abuse crisis in the United States.

Nicholas P. Cafardi, a canon lawyer, explains why he agrees with the New York Times article called,“Church Office Failed to Act on Abuse Scandal,”:

It is rare when issues of canon law make the front page of the New York Times and even more rare when the secular media gets their canonical issues right. But the Times story of July 2, 2010, “Church Office Failed to Act on Abuse Scandal,” did just that. As the Times reported, it truly was a failure in the church’s canon-law system that exacerbated, if it did not help to cause, the clergy child sex-abuse crisis in the United States.

When the crisis first broke in the mid-1980s, U.S. canon lawyers (me among them) thought that the new Code of Canon Law, promulgated in 1983, limited the canonical prosecutions of priests who had sexually abused minors to crimes that were reported within five years of their occurrence. The new canon 1362 said that the statute of limitations on such crimes was five years after their commission.

The problem with that statute, of course, is that it takes children much longer than five years to come to terms with an instance of abuse and begin to tell people about it. The literature suggests that the average time for a child to figure out exactly what was done to them, how wrong it was, that it was not their fault, and that they have nothing to fear from telling people about it, is about twenty years. So a five-year statute on child sexual-abuse crimes is unrealistic to begin with. CONTINUED