If Barack Obama is seeking con solution in the context of his apparent tone deafness and seeming deliberate alienation of would be supporters, he now has the shining example of Pope Benedict XVI who has shown even more idiocy and disregard for public opinion in the form of his decision to not accept the resignations of Irish bishops who were excoriated by the government reports that investigated the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy. Unlike Obama, Benedict, who rules as the equivalent of a supreme dictator and who has no 60 Senate votes to worry about amazingly has decided to retain bishops that if anything need to be criminally prosecuted and imprisoned for lengthy periods. Politics Daily noted in part as follows:*
If Pope Benedict XVI is trying to dig the Catholic Church out of the sex abuse scandal, he only seems to be making the hole deeper.
*
That's the apparent consensus after it was reported that the pope has rejected the resignations of two bishops in Ireland who asked to quit last December after they were named in an independent report for their lack of diligence and action in the country's awful history of the sexual and physical abuse of children by priests.
*
Other analysts suggested that behind the Vatican's rejection was the fear of a "domino effect" in which any bishop or cardinal implicated in the abuse crisis could be pushed to resign, which is a nightmare scenario to a tradition-minded pope like Benedict XVI.
*
"In other words, there may still be many Irish bishops with 'mishandling/bureaucratic,' sex abuse skeletons still in the cupboard who would also have to resign," Paddy Agnew wrote in The Irish Times. That would be fine with sex abuse victims, who were outraged at the decision to reject the resignations.
*
Media reaction was blistering as well. Writing in The Herald of Ireland, Terry Prone accused the Vatican of "arrogance." He said the way the news was communicated was typical of the Vatican, and said that "somewhere along the line, the officer class in the Catholic Church decided they no longer needed to explain and persuade and motivate. They could just tell the faithful. Or not tell them, as in this case."
*
"Latest Papal diktat spells doom for people's church" ran the headline in John Cooney's column in the Irish Independent, while Kevin Clarke, writing on the blog of America magazine, a leading Catholic weekly in the United States, searched for an explanation.
*
A letter to the editor in the Irish Times summed up popular feeling as follows:
*
In refusing to accept their resignations Pope Benedict is showing his contempt for our attempts in Ireland to heal the immense human suffering and damage to the church with which we have been left to grapple.
*
The continued presence of these men in any capacity in the hierarchy of the church sends a strange and confused message to all of us. Following so closely on the proclamation that the ordination of women into the priesthood would constitute grave sin, I am left wondering how the pontiff defines sin. Leaving the specious categorisation of sin as sacramental sin and moral sin aside, I wonder about Christ’s teaching on those who harm children and whether they have read that in Rome?
*
The conduct of the Pope and the Church hierarchy in refusing to deal honestly and credibly with the sex abuse scandal is the principal reason I chose to leave the Roman Catholic Church. I simply got tired of feeling dirty by my mere association with such a morally bankrupt institution. Barack Obama's endless broken campaign promises are the principal reasons I wonder how much longer I will consider myself a Democrat. Independent and/or political cynic seems to best describe my political leanings. I don't do well with liars and arrogance.
Media reaction was blistering as well. Writing in The Herald of Ireland, Terry Prone accused the Vatican of "arrogance." He said the way the news was communicated was typical of the Vatican, and said that "somewhere along the line, the officer class in the Catholic Church decided they no longer needed to explain and persuade and motivate. They could just tell the faithful. Or not tell them, as in this case."
*
"Latest Papal diktat spells doom for people's church" ran the headline in John Cooney's column in the Irish Independent, while Kevin Clarke, writing on the blog of America magazine, a leading Catholic weekly in the United States, searched for an explanation.
*
A letter to the editor in the Irish Times summed up popular feeling as follows:
*
In refusing to accept their resignations Pope Benedict is showing his contempt for our attempts in Ireland to heal the immense human suffering and damage to the church with which we have been left to grapple.
*
The continued presence of these men in any capacity in the hierarchy of the church sends a strange and confused message to all of us. Following so closely on the proclamation that the ordination of women into the priesthood would constitute grave sin, I am left wondering how the pontiff defines sin. Leaving the specious categorisation of sin as sacramental sin and moral sin aside, I wonder about Christ’s teaching on those who harm children and whether they have read that in Rome?
*
The conduct of the Pope and the Church hierarchy in refusing to deal honestly and credibly with the sex abuse scandal is the principal reason I chose to leave the Roman Catholic Church. I simply got tired of feeling dirty by my mere association with such a morally bankrupt institution. Barack Obama's endless broken campaign promises are the principal reasons I wonder how much longer I will consider myself a Democrat. Independent and/or political cynic seems to best describe my political leanings. I don't do well with liars and arrogance.
No comments:
Post a Comment