I've made my opinion clear about how the secular West attacks religion a little too harshly. However, this stance is mitigated by the sexual assault scandals within the Roman Catholic Church. I do expect the Vatican and deal with the issue once and for all but it doesn't seem to be forthcoming.
Do I feel this tarnishes the entire religion? No.I'm not prepared to impugn an entire entity as some are apt to do on the force and actions of a few. Although this is extremely serious. I noticed the NYT has taken it upon itself to editorialize the criminal actions of a few priests but who knows what their agenda is?
Commonweal - a Catholic magazine - offers its alternate perspective.
Sadly, when this horror finally started coming to light in the U.S. some years ago, the National Review Online was one of the leading conservative journals to take on these perverts and demand justice. These guys set a good example for law and order. But now, it often runs columns defending the Catholic Church and its Pope, suggesting that the church is somehow above the actions of its officials. That's just as bad as smearing the entire denomination. Both are dishonest.
ReplyDeleteThese apologists for the Pope and his church are fighting a losing battle. Everyday, a new scandal in a new part of the world, these apologists claimed was untouched by the scandal, come to light and the involvement of ranking clergy and the abuse of authority and privilege is always even worse.
This Pope and his administration may well be trying to do something about this (it certainly looks like it), but the problem is his fault and that of anyone else who looked the other way for generations, and its pretty obvious they all looked the other way, sometimes trying methods of treatment that in their defense were thought effective at the time.
Hopefully, however, the firings continue, the prosecutions and civil suits continue and this sets an example for other religions. That example is simple:
No cleric is above the law. No church hierarchy is above the law. The law can, and the law will punish molesters severely. It will punish the enablers and obstructionists severely too. No cleric or church is above the law.
I agree with Zeus. As half Greek how could I not agree with my ancestral god anyway.
ReplyDeleteThese are sites for important information and tracking of these scoundrels in another denomination. The same rules apply to these guys.
ReplyDeletehttp://pokrov.org/default.asp
http://www.ocanews.org/