Finally, after decades of child abuse by catholic priests and the shameless cover-ups, silence and self protection by the church the Pope has finally apologised and said sorry. But has this gone far enough?
What has the Pope apologised for? He's apologies for the crimes of individual priests. Well, I'm sorry that children were raped and abused in Church, I'm sorry that terrible things happen in the world, I'm sorry that they're happening right now in churches and beyond, but I'm not responsible for them. What the Pope is responsible for and what he has totally failed to acknowledge and apologise for is, in my opinion, the deliberate, clinical and systemic cover-up of these crimes by the institutional church in the interests of protecting its power, influence and its wealth.
And that's not just my view, it's also the view of three state inquiries as well as a number of inquiries around the world and it's not at all acknowledged in the Pope's letter.
Basically, he's shirked all personal responsibility and has failed to answer any of the charges levied at him and the authority of the church and has deflected this by simply and cowardly apologising on behalf of individual catholic priests.
So, he's not apologising for himself, he's apologising on behalf of others and at worst, this is a straightforward deceit as he's refused to engage with that which he's been asked to engage with and at best it proves that he just doesn't understand the nature of what he's being asked to deal with and that's a huge problem.
And what are the concrete actions that the Pope and the catholic church are going to take to ensure that these abhorrent and monstrous crimes can never be committed again? Well, it beggars belief and this I think is the whole problem with this church and it's refusal to engage with reality.
What is he going to do? Is he going to mandate and require under church law a protection policy that requires all Bishops to hand over information about priests who rape and abuse children to the authorities? No! His solution is to request all catholics in Ireland (and only catholics) to pray, to fast and to do penance, because that will fix everything
and secondly there's going to be an apostolic visitation which can be no more than paying lip service in the hope that people think something is being done. No mandatory handing over of information of abusive priests to the authorities, no action on the global scandal, no attempts to protect people in the developing world where cardinals still say this problem doesn't exist, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
These are the gross failures that the church has committed and the lack of any real and concrete action to address the crime of abuse as apposed to the need to evangelise people to try and get them back in the church show exactly where the priority of the Pope and the Vatican lies.
An apology is and should be a recognition of fault, and with that recognition should come a certain understanding of where the fault lies. It is clear to me now, with the publication of this letter, that the Pope sees no, or very little fault with the authority and structure of the church itself but instead with individual priests and the damage they have done. Until a realisation is made that the problem lies with the very way that the structure and philosophy of the church itself is formed and severe and far reaching changes are made, especially the absurd celibacy law, these words are going to do nothing to address the real problem.
What has the Pope apologised for? He's apologies for the crimes of individual priests. Well, I'm sorry that children were raped and abused in Church, I'm sorry that terrible things happen in the world, I'm sorry that they're happening right now in churches and beyond, but I'm not responsible for them. What the Pope is responsible for and what he has totally failed to acknowledge and apologise for is, in my opinion, the deliberate, clinical and systemic cover-up of these crimes by the institutional church in the interests of protecting its power, influence and its wealth.
And that's not just my view, it's also the view of three state inquiries as well as a number of inquiries around the world and it's not at all acknowledged in the Pope's letter.
Basically, he's shirked all personal responsibility and has failed to answer any of the charges levied at him and the authority of the church and has deflected this by simply and cowardly apologising on behalf of individual catholic priests.
So, he's not apologising for himself, he's apologising on behalf of others and at worst, this is a straightforward deceit as he's refused to engage with that which he's been asked to engage with and at best it proves that he just doesn't understand the nature of what he's being asked to deal with and that's a huge problem.
And what are the concrete actions that the Pope and the catholic church are going to take to ensure that these abhorrent and monstrous crimes can never be committed again? Well, it beggars belief and this I think is the whole problem with this church and it's refusal to engage with reality.
What is he going to do? Is he going to mandate and require under church law a protection policy that requires all Bishops to hand over information about priests who rape and abuse children to the authorities? No! His solution is to request all catholics in Ireland (and only catholics) to pray, to fast and to do penance, because that will fix everything
and secondly there's going to be an apostolic visitation which can be no more than paying lip service in the hope that people think something is being done. No mandatory handing over of information of abusive priests to the authorities, no action on the global scandal, no attempts to protect people in the developing world where cardinals still say this problem doesn't exist, despite all the evidence to the contrary. These are the gross failures that the church has committed and the lack of any real and concrete action to address the crime of abuse as apposed to the need to evangelise people to try and get them back in the church show exactly where the priority of the Pope and the Vatican lies.
An apology is and should be a recognition of fault, and with that recognition should come a certain understanding of where the fault lies. It is clear to me now, with the publication of this letter, that the Pope sees no, or very little fault with the authority and structure of the church itself but instead with individual priests and the damage they have done. Until a realisation is made that the problem lies with the very way that the structure and philosophy of the church itself is formed and severe and far reaching changes are made, especially the absurd celibacy law, these words are going to do nothing to address the real problem.
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