By Charley Honey
The Grand Rapids Press
April 10, 2010
http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/04/charley_honey_local_catholics.html
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| Pope Benedict XVI |
Catholics want a pastor for a pope, not a politician.
That’s the sense I am getting from watching the latest wave of the sexual-abuse scandal flood the church and lap right up to the feet of Pope Benedict XVI.
Amid the stunning revelations of new abuse accusations and alleged cover-ups by Benedict and other prelates, the pope seems hidden from view behind Vatican bureaucrats circling the wagons.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano’s dismissal of the allegations as “petty gossip” during the Easter Mass at St. Peter’s Square, while Benedict listened wearily, most strikingly showed the Vatican trying to put PR spin on a crisis that calls for humble pastoral candor from the pope.
Vatican looks defensive
The more Vatican officials try to paint this as an anti-Catholic smear campaign orchestrated by a hostile media, the more it looks like they are trying to divert attention from the core issues. The media may not be getting everything right in its coverage, as seasoned Vatican reporter John Allen has pointed out. But blaming reporters is a well-worn page from the political playbook unworthy of the world’s largest church.
The pope and Vatican hierarchy look defensive and out of touch in this latest wave of abuse allegations coming from Europe and an especially chilling case involving a Wisconsin priest accused of molesting as many as 200 deaf boys. Many prelates appear tone-deaf to the magnitude of allegations that undermine the church’s moral credibility, its many good works and its vast majority of honorable priests.
Benedict and his defenders would do better to heed the words of Pope John Paul II at his 1978 installation: “Be not afraid!” The pope is loved by most Catholics even if they disagree with him on some issues. He would serve them well by speaking to them directly about these accusations with pastoral gentleness and honesty.
Local congregants respond
“I wish he would stop allowing other people to defend him and find his voice as a pastor,” says Joseph Horak, a lifelong Catholic from Caledonia and psychologist who has counseled abuse victims.
The member of Holy Family Catholic Church, and I suspect many others, feels Benedict could go a long way toward facing the current crisis by a more heartfelt expression of outrage, responsibility and apology.
Horak wants to hear from the pope himself about what he knew of abuse cases during his watch as Archbishop Ratzinger in Munich and as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Horak would like to see more of the Benedict who historically prayed with abuse victims during his 2008 visit to the U.S.
Indeed, Benedict took strong action against abusive priests once those cases were consolidated under his congregational office in 2001, notes Allen, of the National Catholic Reporter. And he was the first to “devote an entire document to the sex-abuse crisis” in his recent pastoral letter to Ireland, Allen writes.
In that letter, Benedict lists factors contributing to the crisis including “a misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal, resulting in failure to apply existing canonical penalties and to safeguard the dignity of every person.”
That was a welcome acknowledgment that some bishops have been too concerned with protecting the church’s image.
Angie Ciccone, a lifelong Catholic who co-directs Grand Rapids’ Help Pregnancy Crisis Aid, for low-income mothers, says the media is not doing its homework on Benedict’s role in these cases.
But she also feels leaders were too concerned with the church’s image when they tried to rehabilitate abusing priests.
“They really thought they were doing the right thing,” Ciccone says. “However, there was another side of the church that just didn’t want the scandal. That was wrong, and they know it now.”
I hope they do. And I hope Ciccone is right when she says, “I believe God is cleaning house in the Catholic church. He’s bringing the hidden things of darkness in the church to light.”
The light is the truth, and the truth will set you free. Benedict, if anyone, should know that.
E-mail Charles Honey: honeycharlesm@gmail.com
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