Have the Abuse Scandals Marked a Turning Point?
Guardian
April 5, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/apr/05/catholicism-christianity
UNITED KINGDOM -- After the dust has settled, what will be the future for the Roman Catholic church? Will it have one at all? Depending on whom you read, this is the worst crisis since the reformation, or merely since the Modernist convulsions of the early 20th century. Inside the Vatican, however, everyone seems confident that the right measures have been put in place; the guilty will be punished, and the scoffing infidels left behind.
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| A copy of Pope Benedict XVI's pastoral letter to Irish Catholics is displayed in St Peters Square, Vatican. Photo by Franco Origlia |
Suppose this month's scandals have not been a turning point. In that case they have certainly accentuated trends which were already under way: the shrinkage and declining prestige of the celibate priesthood in the west; the hostility of secular opinion; the breakup of Catholic Ireland; Benedict XVI's conviction that it is the modern world that is out of step with reality. Are all these developments inevitable or will there be some other turning point?
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