UNITED STATES
Standing on My Head
July 8, 2014 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker
Pope Francis famously kissed a man with a horrible physical deformity, but what if he kissed a man who was even more horribly deformed in his soul? What if he were to go to prison to hear the confession of a pedophile priest?
The Pope has met with some victims of priestly sex abuse and quite right. I’m sure everyone agrees: let’s do as much as we can to make it up to the victims of priestly sex abuse. Let’s make sure we have adequate child protection plans in place. Let’s have a zero tolerance policy on sex abuse. Let’s make sure the bishops who were covering up are stopped. Let’s guarantee that the police will be brought in when a Catholic priest breaks the law. Let’s stop this terrible crime and protect the children.
Once all that is said and done what do you do with a pedophile priest? Would you be able to forgive a man who was guilty of this horror?
What is your attitude? Would you “lock him up and throw away the key?” Do you want to do something worse–castrate him maybe or maybe throw him in among the demonic thugs in prison hoping that they do the dirty work and torture the guy before they finally kill him? It’s understandable that you would feel that way.
If the man is guilty of a crime he must serve his time, but then what?
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