Pope Benedict will write a letter to the faithful of Ireland.
Ecclesiastical bureaucrats and professors (and Pope Benedict was both) live in a world of words, and think that saying the correct thing is equivalent to, even better than, doing the correct thing. Having said the correct words, they cannot understand why people want them to do something. The Pope will write a letter; and bishops have allowed tens of thousands of children and young people to be molested, raped, and tortured by Catholic priests and religious. And Benedict will think he has done enough.
Thank you for saying that. But I can not imagine that the Pope is not aware of his power. I know bishops who never do anything about abusive priests will come down hard on a priest who disagrees with them. There appears to be something is missing in them, whatever it is that makes a man react like a man when children are threatened. The normal male response. It does not seem to exist in the Church, except in the occasional selection from the Fathers.
Precisely what else should the Pope do?
Mary, you’re right that there’s something off in a man (or woman) who isn’t enraged at the abuse of kids. Witness how child molestors are treated by other prisoners. Unfortunately though this lack of a normal response is not limited to Catholic bishops. In our school board a man who abused kids mentally and verbally, and did some things that were borderline sexually, was simply passed from school to school. I’m afraid that our school boards are yet another scandal waiting to happen. Could it be something in people who belong to the controling hierarchies of any group, that their position and the reputation of the organization take precedent over basic human instincts and values?
“Could it be something in people who belong to the controlling hierarchies of any group, that their position and the reputation of the organization take precedent over basic human instincts and values?”
Yes, Father Michael, exactly!
Children do not vote, are rarely listened to, let alone believed and are fair game for any sociopathic thug in the neighborhood. And then there is the unspoken but well established: grown-ups hang together. Children will not be reading Joseph Ratzinger’s letter. Because it isn’t about them. It’s about him