BishopAccountability.org
 
  Is the Vatican a Bastion of Family Values?

By Brad MacDonald
The Trumpet
February 18, 2010

http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6995.5499.0.0

VATICAN CITY -- In an age where marriage and family are under vicious and unrelenting assault, the Vatican's zealous defense of these institutions appears impressive and praiseworthy.

But is the Vatican the bastion of family values millions believe it to be?

On February 1, Pope Benedict xvi tore into liberal politicians in Britain for trying to pass legislation that supposedly would protect homosexuals from discrimination. During his speech to 35 Catholic bishops from England and Wales, the pope lambasted the immoral legislation and urged the bishops to work together to oppose it with "missionary zeal."

One week later, Benedict lectured the Pontifical Council for the Family on the importance of marriage to the well-being of children. "The family founded on marriage between a man and a woman is the greatest help that can be given to children," he said. "Supporting the family and promoting its true good, its rights, its unity and stability is the best way to protect the rights and the real needs of children." Four days later, Benedict reiterated this theme during a meeting with bishops visiting from Romania and Moldova. "The blossoming of priestly and religious vocations depends in good part on the moral and religious health of the Christian family," Benedict stated.

This week, Benedict's crusade in defense of marriage and family became—for the moment—a little trickier.

On Tuesday, the pope concluded two days of meetings with 24 bishops from Ireland. The topic of discussion was the sex scandal plaguing the Catholic Church in Ireland, details of which emerged last November with the release of the now infamous Murphy Report. Conducted by the Irish government, the three-volume report revealed an abominable tale of decades of physical and sexual abuse against children by Catholic clergy—and the plot to conceal the heinous offenses by a multitude of high-ranking Catholic officials.

Among its findings, the report stated that the "maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church and the preservation of its assets" was more important than justice for the victims.

So much for these Catholic leaders working to nurture healthy families and stable children.

Of course, the sexual exploitation of innocent children by Catholic priests in Ireland is merely another chapter in a sordid saga. In 2002, Pope John Paul ii was forced to meet with church leaders in the United States after dozens of stories surfaced showing that pedophile priests had been at work for decades in congregations across the country.

And the news only gets worse for Benedict's crusade for families and children. Germany's Der Spiegel reported last week on the growing number of revelations of sexual abuse of children by as many as 100 priests and Catholic lay members in Germany. "After years of suppression," Spiegel wrote, "the wall of silence appears to be crumbling" (emphasis mine throughout). The pope may want to keep his notes from this week's gathering close by—it appears a similar meeting with German leaders is in the offing.

Naturally, when the pope learned of the findings of the Murphy Report, he reacted with surprise and disgust. In a press statement last December, Benedict said that he shared the "outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland." In Rome this week, Benedict again empathized with the child victims, while also attempting to assuage the many voices demanding that the Vatican be tougher and more decisive in its handling of the Irish sex scandal.

Many were satisfied with Benedict's statements, and touted the meeting as "historic" and "unprecedented." Others were less enthused. "The talks were at best missed opportunity and at worst a mere public relations exercise," Mike Ion observed in the Guardian. This is evident if you read the Vatican's official statement released after Tuesday's meeting.

The document possessed enough of a tone of grief and repentance to satiate the widespread demand that the Vatican voice a stronger opinion on this issue. But really, it was nothing more than platitudes. The Vatican was careful not to admit an iota of complicity. The self-serving statement was actually written to distance the Vatican from the despicable conduct of its representatives in Dublin.

Take this little bromide: "Together they [Benedict and the Irish bishops] examined the failure of Irish church authorities for many years to act effectively in dealing with cases involving the sexual abuse of young people …." Sounds pretty good, right?

Of course "Irish church authorities" failed to deal with these heinous crimes. But what about the Vatican's failure to investigate the disgusting stories that dripped for years out of Ireland?

Here's something else interesting.

Joseph Duffy was the spokesman for the bishops in attendance at this week's conference with the pope. On Sunday, Duffy remarked on the pope's familiarity with the sex scandal, stating he believed that Benedict had been "very well clued in on this issue." Duffy then made a bone-chilling statement: "[E]ven before he became pope, he had access to the documentation, and … he knew exactly what was in the documentation, and … he wasn't living in a fool's paradise."

According to this high-ranking Catholic bishop, Benedict became familiar with the reports of child abuse in Ireland when he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department responsible for reviewing abuse claims against clergy. Yet no one appears to be seriously investigating this allegation! Was Cardinal Ratzinger—prior to becoming Pope Benedict xvi in 2005—complicit in covering up this scandal? A conclusive answer will be difficult to attain as long as the Vatican refuses to open its archives on this issue.

Of course, it's possible Duffy somehow got his wires crossed and Benedict didn't learn of these horrible crimes and the far-reaching cover-up until the rest of us did. But does that alleviate the Vatican's responsibility in creating the conditions in which these terrible crimes occurred, or its impotent response to these scandals?

Pope Benedict and the Vatican have issued plenty of sweet-sounding words of empathy and comfort. The pope has verbally condemned the actions of his despicable priests. But those looking at this objectively can see that there have been very few tangible actions coming from the Vatican on this issue. Pope Benedict possesses many of the tools required to purge the sexual deviates from the church's midst. The Vatican has the intelligence infrastructure to lead efficient and transparent investigations into allegations of sex abuse when they arise. Instead of merely condemning perverted priests, or retiring them, or transferring them to another parish, Benedict could severely punish them. More importantly, as the "holy father" and ultimate authority in the Catholic Church, Benedict has the religious authority to create and enact policies that would protect his flock from such ravenous wolves.

Yet the Vatican has been slow in each and every one of these actions!

Supporters of the Vatican argue that Benedict's reach into Catholic congregations in countries like Ireland, America and Germany is limited. We're told that most dioceses are largely independent of the Vatican and operate with little direction and assistance from headquarters. Don't buy it. Since he became pope in 2005, Benedict has proven remarkably adept at tackling national politicians and policies that don't gel with Catholic doctrine or Vatican ambition. Throughout its history, the Vatican has proven itself willing and capable of bringing down governments, shaping national policies, destroying careers and confronting and undermining competing religions and ideologies.

The Vatican might promote itself as the bastion of family values and morality. But isn't that message radically undermined by the near constant surfacing of sordid sex crimes by Catholic leaders? Moreover, isn't the Vatican's approach to these scandals a sign that despite being widely worshipped as a bastion of marriage and family, this institution is merely another broken religion incapable of curing the evil human heart?

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.