A small number of priests

When the child sex abuse scandal rocked the Philadelphia Archdiocese, a local District Attorney named 63 priests and two Cardinals with covering up the abuse.

A Philadelphia newspaper published a letter from one John Hull, who said that what really disgusted him was “condemning the church for the actions of a small number of priests.”

A small number of priests? We’re talking about 63 priests and 2 Cardinals – Anthony Bevilacqua and John Krol – in collusion!

The Vatican itself admits that over 4 thousand priests have committed child sex abuse in the US alone. International investigators put the number at over 100,000 priests worldwide, and millions of victims.

Father Marcial Maciel Degollado in Mexico told his young seminarians that his sex games were sanctioned by the Vatican to relieve “abdominal pains,” and he offered the young boys absolution for their youthful sins. Since he claimed to possess a papal dispensation for his sordid acts, thirty victims wrote to Josef Ratzinger, now the Pope, and begged him for some justice. Ratzinger buried the evidence and praised Maciel.

The list goes on: Rev. Bruce Ritter in New York, military chaplain Robert Peebles in Texas, Archbishop Juliusz Paetz in Poland, Bishop Franziskus Eisenbach in Germany, and victims of sodomy rings run by the Christian Brothers in Canada and Australia?

The biggest scandal is the Vatican cover-up. After the Boston scandals, the Vatican summoned disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law, from the U.S., not for a stern talking-to, but to accept the plumb job of archpriest at St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome. We have to wonder what dear Mary say about the head of her church.

Once the bosses are covering up the crimes, this is no longer about the actions of a few priests. It becomes institutionalized child abuse.

And the outcome in Philadelphia? Looks like the D.A. was too late. The statute of limitations has expired and the perpetrators, they say, cannot be held legally responsible.

Humanity longs for a spirituality of justice and common decency. Jesus healed people, shared food, comforted the poor, and gave hope to society’s outcasts. This is spirituality in practice. Justice here and now. This is the spirituality of Jesus, Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, Buddha, and Aung San Suu Kyi. What will the Vatican offer the suffering victims of this world that truly honours the example of Jesus?

This was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Spiritualism . Feel free to respond, or trackback.