Thursday, March 06, 2014

“Pope Francis”: Roman Catholic Church now a victim in sex abuse scandals

In effect, he has picked up the standard response we’ve seen from other apologetics: “Other people are doing it too … family, neighbors … we’re the only one attacked for not doing enough for it”. From here:

Pope Francis offered one of his more forceful responses yet to criticisms that the church hasn't done enough to respond to the child-abuse scandals that have shaken the church.

Last month, the United Nations issued a report that was highly critical of the Vatican's handling of priests who had abused children, arguing that the church allowed them to escape punishment. Victims' groups have accused Pope Francis—who established a committee charged with developing a more uniform response to the problem—of saying too little about the scandal.

"The cases of abuse are terrible because they leave very deep wounds," he said, citing statistics showing that most child abuse is perpetrated in the family or by neighbors. But "the church has done a lot—perhaps more than anyone….And yet the church is the only one that is attacked."

Oh, the poor Church, the poor, poor Church. “We’re the real victims around here.”

Well, family and neighbors never mounted an organized campaign effort at hiding pedophiles or obstruction of justice.

2 comments:

  1. A RC at a discussion on Greenbaggins claimed that whenever there is something scandalous done by the RCC, such as the crusades, massacres and sex scandal, its always due to "overzealous sinners, but the Church remains holy". Thus in effect, the RCC is untaintable, no matter how bad its members get. The church is simply "disfigured and mourns". What do you think of this view?

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  2. It depends on how you define the Church...

    An RC should bear in mind they believe Jesus founded a visible church on Peter, and that the CCC 752 says the various meanings of the word "church" - the liturgical assembly, or the local community, or the universal community of believers - are "inseparable". So what the local community does is not abstracted from the universal community. And being a paedophile priest or generic unbeliever within the RCC must mean that one *is* part of the true Body of Christ. Again, the meanings according to official RCC teaching are inseparable. So that Greenbaggins excuse is a bit flimsy. There cannot be evil in the Body of Christ, but there is in the RCC. Catholics live a tension they cannot reconcile.

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