Posted on 04/17/2008 3:25:48 PM PDT by ninonitti
Pope Benedict XVI chided Americans for a moral breakdown he said had fueled the church's child sex abuse scandal, ahead of an open-air mass before tens of thousands here Thursday. Gates opened at Washington's new sports stadium before dawn so that an expected 48,000 people could trickle through stringent security measures to attend the mass at 10:00 am (1400 GMT).
Benedict received a rapturous White House welcome Wednesday and met privately with President George W. Bush in the Oval Office, before addressing the pedophile priest scandal that has rocked the US church in a speech to US Catholic bishops.
Thousands of people gathered at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception late Wednesday whooped, cheered and whistled when the Popemobile pulled up outside.
The basilica's bells pealed, and inside the largest Catholic church in North America, people had no qualms about climbing onto pews to catch a glimpse as Benedict entered.
In a speech delivered after evening prayer, the pontiff berated the bishops for their poor handling of a scandal surrounding sexual abuse of children in the church.
But he urged efforts "to address the sin of abuse within the wider context of sexual mores" as well as a reassessment of "the values underpinning society."
"What does it mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available today?" the pontiff said on the first full day of his US visit.
"Children deserve to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships. They should be spared the degrading manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so prevalent today."
Describing clerics who sexually abuse children as "gravely immoral," the octogenarian pope warned that the scourge of pedophilia "is found not only in your dioceses but in every sector of society."
"It calls for a determined, collective response," he said, but did not outline any firm action that the Vatican intended to take to purge the church of pedophile priests.
The US Catholic church plunged into its worst crisis in 200 years in 2002 when the archbishop of Boston confessed he had protected a priest who had sexually abused young members of his church -- opening a floodgate of thousands of similar abuse cases around the country dating back decades.
Benedict angered victim support groups by praising the bishops' efforts to heal the wounds from the scandal.
"Five years ago, US bishops begrudgingly adopted some minimal promises on paper. There's no evidence to suggest they've had any real impact," Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), told AFP.
"The pope continues to stand behind his men - the bishops who conceal clergy sex crimes," said another SNAP member, Joelle Casteix.
"What the pope should be doing is assuring Catholics worldwide that any bishop who shields a predator will lose his job and the priests will be swiftly defrocked," she said.
Earlier Wednesday, on the first papal visit to the White House in three decades, the Roman Catholic pontiff urged Bush to prefer diplomacy to war as a way of resolving conflicts.
But aside from mentioning the plight of Iraqi Christians, he skirted mention of the Iraq war, on which the Bush administration and Vatican do not see eye to eye.
Benedict and Bush expressed concern for Christians in war-torn Iraq, agreed on the need to create a Palestinian state, and said Lebanon must be free of undue foreign influence, according to a joint statement.
The pope urged the United States to treat immigrants humanely, and called on Americans to spurn materialism and shun secularism.
On the second day of his US trip -- his 81st birthday -- the pope drew raves more befitting a rock star than the head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
Under a cloudless sky, Bush welcomed Benedict with a 21-gun salute, a famed soprano singing a soaring "Lord's Prayer," and an earnest "peace be with you."
Some 13,500 people packed the mansion's South Lawn waving little Vatican and US flags, as cries of "viva il Papa!" (long live the pope) mingled with the two national anthems and two choruses of "happy birthday" for the pontiff.
Thursday, after saying mass at Nationals' Stadium, Benedict plans to meet with Jewish representatives after an inter-faith gathering at the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington.
That, and a planned stop at a New York synagogue, appear aimed at quelling Jewish unhappiness over the revival for the Latin Rite mass of the 16th century "Prayer for Jews" in which Catholics pray for the conversion of Jews.
Maybe as a token of his sincerity the Pope could have his Swiss Guards escort this Bishop out the cushy digs he's enjoying at his new post in the Vatican which he went to after his admission.
and what about protecting the unborn?
Why do we give Communion to ones that so blatantly are for abortion? Isn’t that murder? Thou shalt not kill??????
Close but no cigar. Unrestricted fags in the church caused the scandal. They were (are) a reflection of society, but the Church had some control over them, and did not use it effectively.
It is a breakdown in society and it is also a breakdown within culture of the priesthood. The solution to this is revival and repentance.
Well, as a matter of fact, he is absolutely right. There is massive hypocrisy on the part of the media to talk about the priest sex scandal, while at the same time working assiduously for gay rights, gay training of children in public schools, and a constitutional right to pornography.
The sex scandal was, in fact, mainly in the 1970s, and was mainly a product of the sexual revolution of the 60s, which did NOT begin in the Catholic Church.
The fact that it was mainly a homosexual problem, and that it has largely—although not completely—been dealt with, are facts that the press prefers to ignore.
Sex scandals are 10 times more common in the public schools today than they ever were in the Catholic Church in its worst days. The Church is trying to deal with the problem. Are the schools? Are the politicians? Is the press? I think not.
I believe that most of the blame historically lies in “mandatory celibacy” for the clergy. It contradicts the Apostle Paul’s teaching, i.e. 1 Tim 3:2—
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach...
You just got pinged
I don’t know —which came first—the chicken or the egg? Priests have been doing this for a very long time. Maybe the church is what caused society to break down. After all, if you couldn’t trust the priest-who could you trust. NOBODY wanted to hear about this 40 yrs ago and the internet wasn’t around to broadcast widespread abuse.
Partially true. However, the fact that the Bishops evidently had lost all of their cojones whilst the priests had a bit too many helped. Amazing how even the lib press does not use the world “homosexual priest” very often, eh?
The Pope is right. You laugh and parrot a line from Seinfeld “not that there is anything wrong with it”, you equate pederasty with ‘merriment’ or some such euphemism, and then you act surprised and outraged that it infects the Church the same way it has infected Hollywood, every college in the country and your workplace as well. Yes, the Church only reflects the sick mores of the society at large.
How about he blame the church and the leadership instead. That is where the problem lies. Just like the quote by the arch-bishop in Boston regarding the hiding of pedophiles instead of prosecuting them. That is who is to blame not the rest of the populace.
Not much of an excuse or church for that matter if the best it's leader can do is point his finger at society. Smacks of victim nation.
Moving them from place to place.. and country to country.. But of course "the CHURCH" has not released THOSE files yet(moving them out of "A" country).. It is strange that most of the queer pedophiles are in the U.S. because no other country is raising hell about it.. Are all the queer Vampires in the United States?..
Then you would be wrong. Child molestation is not unique to the otherwise celibate or unmarried.
The first obligation and responsibility of a priest is to his parishioners and his community. Were he to be married he would rightly have to place his care and concern for his wife and children ahead of that of his parish.
That would not explain the same abuses in protestant churches without celibacy.
I’ve read or listened to everything the Pope has said publicly on this trip.
And he has not absolved the Church or the Bishops.
It is also correct to address the wider issue of morality in society.
I believe this headline and the media treatment in general to be misleading.
sw
Correct. The NT epistles contain admonitions against sexual immorality, whether by ministers or any other Christian. Yet the Catholic Church officially holds to a position that openly contradicts the teachings of Scripture, and even one of Rome’s own medieval schoolmen, the celebrated Thomas Aquinas, stated that Christians are obligated to follow the canonical Scriptures and NOT the teachings of church doctors.
The Church is supposed to be the “salt and light” of culture, not the other way around.
That's an age old common argument and not necessarily the truth.
What obligations can't be met if a Priest had a family of his own? Protestant clergy manage very well without the vow of celibacy.
sw
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