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Betrayal of innocence
The scandal of child sexual abuse by priests rocked the American Church. Reports just published reveal its extent. What was to blame – vice or a culture of secrecy?
“PIU difettoso, il migliore,” as they say in Rome: “The worse, the better.” The very awfulness of the report made it, at first, welcome reading within the Curia. If so many parish priests were really violating their vow of celibacy with boys, then a stern reinforcement of clerical discipline from above was all the more necessary. Soon, however, as public outrage became strident, the Holy See backed off, in its usual stately fashion. The Pope suggested that after all only those guilty “as a long-standing practice or with many males” needed be unfrocked; other priests, who had subsequently “curbed their desires” and “atoned for their infamous deeds with proper repentance”, might continue in parish ministry. The author of the report responded furiously, for he maintained that the rot ran deep. Not only lecherous clergy but the “do-nothing superiors of clerics and priests” were “partners in the guilt of others” by permitting “the destructive plague” to continue: the Church must be reformed! Rome turned frosty…
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Contributor: Project Worker
Author: The Tablet 06/03/2004
Posted: 10-3-2004
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