Letters to the Editor
Chris W
Published Letters: 54 Editor's Choice: 6
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@Anonymous - on that report
[Read the article: Giuliani's loyalty to an accused priest]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You asked me if I had read that philadelphia report. No, I haven't. I read parts, but the whole thing is some 400 pages.
What I've read is astonishing in two regards. First, it provides a plethora of insight into what was done and what went wrong in that diocese. Such reports aways make for a facinating reading.
But second, it is astonishing how much this DA saw only half of the picture - or choose to present such - and completely missed the boat in ternms of recommendations.
A few issues I noted: - the whole report is laced with incredulity about the amount of letters and suggestiosn the Bishop received without acting on or believing them. The context missing is that Bishops get a constant trickle of complaint letters about all of their priest, and have learnt over time to treat them sceptically. A good friend of mine - a parish priest in a small village in a border town, once told me that whenever he strays even an inch from what the public believes to be Vatican line in his Sunday sermon, his Bishop will know on Monday afternoon. The reason is - as called it - "letter writing old ladies" - people who frequent church and have enough time on their hand to report whenever someone doe something they disapprove of. And the jump from ratting out your priest for heresy and accusing him to have an awful eye for the ladies is less far than one might think. So anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct will undertandbably be eyed very sceptically, if not outright discarded.
As, one might add, as they should.
Another one is the face value assumption that the diocesan buerocracy is just some kind of well functioning machine. Usually they aren't, they are factioned, struggle of interest groups and alliances are common among priests and laymen, and it is usually about as efficient as any secular buerocracy. Sometimes less.
Then there is the lawsuit issue. The report is (as are many in this debate here) completely blind to the fact how much the threat of ruinous lawsuits contributed to the mishandling problem in the first place. The issue is mentioned in a few places, but the obvious conclusions - an effective shield against such lawsuits - are never draw. To the contrary, the report actually suggests to make lawsuits easier and increase damage sums. The blind American faith in the almighty power of the greedy lawyer and the dream of getting rich quick by lawsuit are at their worst here. There are places in the world where such lawsuits are basically impossible, and they don't have that kind of problem. There have been a few cases of pedophile priests over the years, but they are dealt with promptly and comparatively eficient.
This, of course, is because doing the right thing is not harshly penalized there - you can just talk to the victims and seek an appropriate solution without fearing to bankrupt your diocese tomorrow.
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freedom of religion
[Read the article: Worshiping strict statutes of limitation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Making laws that unevitably steer churches into bankruptcy has the very definite effect of deprieving catholics of the freedom of religion.
Apparently none of those hate-filled posters here seems to admit that. Maybe the US of A need a Kulturkampf experience to finally understand that you can not outlaw religion (and, as a practical matter, especially not the oldest and best organized one of them.)
The course you guys are steering is dangerous. Driving Dioceses into bankruptcy means you take away our churches, and leeave our priests to starve. And you steal, to the benefit of sleazy lawyers and professional victims, the money we all, every one of us (most of which, one might add, are not too rich ourselves) gave to the church to do God's work, both for charity and preaching. Now you steal it.
You may like that. Catholics will not.
Some people keep lamenting certain elements of the Catholic spectrum allying themselves with conservatives. And they have a point.
But thats absolutely nothing compared to what you will see if you really start war on the catholic church.
Fürst Bismarck, at his time arguably one of the most powerful men in the world, thought he could do the same. He erred, and found out to his detriment.
I am very purposefully arguing in terms of machiavellistic power politics. One could argue this from a point of democratic principle, and on freedom of religion as well. But it is my impression that you are too hate filled to actually care for the rights of your fellow catholic citizens. So I do it this way.
If you can't be brought to acknowledge the lion's beauty, you should at least realistically fear his claws.
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there is no "vatican wealth"
[Read the article: Worshiping strict statutes of limitation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That so called vativcan wealth is a myth.
Officially the vatican lives off contributions from all catholics. Less officially, there is a church quip that the archdioceses of Chicago and Cologne together supply more than half of the Vatican budget.
People make all fuss about the church's history, but they are our cultural heritage, and I doubt anybody intends to throw away all our collective heritage to satifsy a bunch of bile spewing american protestants. These items, be they art or historical writings, or buildings, are not assets in any economic sense.
Economically the Vatican and the Catholic Church are rather poor organizations.
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there is no difference
[Read the article: Worshiping strict statutes of limitation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Re janice's letter
there is no difference bertween "the church" and "its flock". We *are* the church. All 1.1 billion of us.
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@Anonymous: I have no idea what you mean
[Read the article: Worshiping strict statutes of limitation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]@Anonymous: I have no idea what you mean by this question.
The Church is the community of the faithful. I have no idea how that creates "auto erotic" of some kind in such a situation.