He praised American bishops for their handling of child sex abuse. And for that reason, for me old Popey still falls into the force for evil category.
They expect a pontiff to come to Ireland in 2018, whether it's this Pope or some other old man in a dress there better be apologies for crimes committed and systematically covered up not praise for the men behind it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/28/us/pope-francis-philadelphia-sexual-abuse.html
That's a well balanced article that addresses the shortcomings of the Pope's most recent comments but also highlights what he has said in the past and the positive steps he has taken.
Let's not mince words, the abuse scandal has blighted the lives of thousands of people and destroyed the faith of many in the church as an institution. No amount of words heals that kind of pain. And if the perception is that the Pope cares more for the priests and bishops who have suffered the well-deserved backlash than the victims, then it makes things worse in the eyes of many.
Somebody had to handle the situation it is true, and any number of in-the-dark clergy may have been caught in the cross fire, but that's part of the job - ESPECIALLY if somebody is fucking up. They're not fireman risking their lives; if somebody had had the balls to pull these priests at the time then a lot of hurt could have been saved decades ago.
I don't care if people who were "not suited" to the priesthood were bounced into it by relatives who wanted to pride themselves that there was a priest in the family - and perhaps at the same time get an oddball out of their sight. It should have been spotted sooner and dealt with decisively and I'm sick of the pandering and pussyfooting around the issue because it's not the Vatican and the Pope that gets damaged; it's people's faith. The church as an institution will hobble along nicely but the church as an instrument of faith and community is what suffers. In a religion that teaches forgiveness is part of a person's own healing process much more needs to be done to show humility and contriteness.
Perhaps the Pope just can't find the words; maybe he fears re-opening old wounds by constantly talking about it. Perhaps he doesn't want people to be constantly identifying the church with abuse and undermining the good work it does as a result, or perhaps the shame keeps him from looking the victims in the eye.
Whatever it is, he can't sit on it and hope it goes away. It isn't, and neither himself or the Vatican can hope to deal with the issue piecemeal. It will dog them for the rest of the century at least, and so it should. The road to redemption is long and arduous and sometimes none of the choices we are faced with are good ones, but we still have to choose. Sooner or later the Pope will have to be more forthright. Every year Liverpool holds a ceremony apologising for its role in the slave trade. I think some kind of similar event needs to be adopted by the church.
Anyway, we don't want to drag this thread off topic so I'll leave my rant there.
