VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
The Archbishop of New York’s comments at the Synod of Bishops: humility is not a strategy but the right attitude. A video on the rise of Islam presented by Cardinal Turkson has triggered a dispute
Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City
The Church is not afraid to admit to its own mistakes. This was the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s message to journalists this morning, during the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization. Exuberant as always, Dolan mentioned a television debate he recently took part in, speaking about the reaction to the paedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church and about other mistakes the Church has committed in the past.
One believer, referring to the television series The Borgias – which paints a gloomy picture of the intrigues of the Curia and the Roman nobility during the Renaissance period – asked Dolan: “How do we defend the Church with stories such as that involving Pope Alexander VI who had a lover?” Dolan’s reply was: “No, he did not just have one lover, he had many! The Church – he added – is not afraid to admit to its own mistakes.”
For the American cardinal “being humble isn’t just a pastoral strategy. It’s an evangelical demand” to ensure the Church fulfils its mission. “The new evangelisation – he added – is to do with conversion of heart and interior renewal.” Returning to the paedophilia scandal, Dolan spoke about Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s “mea culpa” for the sexual abuse committed by priests against minors, pronounced at the shrine of Lough Derg, on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress which took place in Ireland last year.
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