Replies

From Domenico Bettinelli's Blog:

Update: An archdiocesan flunky responded to someone who wrote to complain:

The text you cite was part of an apology ceremony planned largely by local victims of clergy sexual abuse in which the Archdiocese of San Francisco was a participant. An apology to clergy abuse victims for the pain and suffering caused to them by ministers of the Church was delivered by the Archbishop. The planners felt that because many of the abuse victims are alienated from the Catholic Church, the text was appropriate. The ceremony was not a liturgy and was not held in a church. I think the website describes the apology ceremony for clergy sexual abuse victims, held in June 2003. As I told another person, the text will be removed from the Archdiocesan website.

I suggest you examine the entire Archdiocesan website at www.sfarchdiocese.org

Finally, I hope that there are more important things in this life to which you could give your attention and energy perhaps following the Holy Father's message to welcome the immigrant; or volunteering at a soup kitchen; or some other good Christian acts of charity.How arch! You can almost hear the condescension dripping from their voice. What does one thing have to do with another? The message is How dare you spend time worrying about paganism in the Church when there are immigrants to welcome and poor to feed and other social justice projects to be involved in?

To which one of his bloggers penned the following ..

1- It's a perfectly good prayer. (Deny the allegation.)
2- The archbishop said it. (Invoke authority.)
3- There were special circumstances. (Reason to bend the rules.)
4- It wasn't in a church. (The rules don't apply here anyway.)
5- We're taking it off the site. (Get rid of the evidence-- of the non-crime
that we didn't commit.)
6- You're a nasty person to notice. (Shoot the messenger.)Hmm, that response does seem strangely familiar. Is there some training that every diocesan flunky must go through that outlines how to respond to every misconduct, large or small?

Re: "An archdiocesan flunky responded to someone who wrote to complain: The text you cite was part of an apology ceremony planned largely by local victims of clergy sexual abuse in which the Archdiocese of San Francisco was a participant. An apology to clergy abuse victims for the pain and suffering caused to them by ministers of the Church was delivered by the Archbishop"

What the Confiteor wasn't good enough?

How about mea culpa?

They could do it in English I wouldn't mind. A little sack cloth and ashes wouldn't be a bad idea either. These jokers are like stray dogs, always lifting their leg to piss on something. Gotta mark their territory, never any humility.