Cardinals Press Conference

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Hi, my name is MaryLu and my friend Nancy told me about this site. I am so glad to find a site where it is "safe" to talk about my religion.

I was wondering what your thoughts were when watching the Cardinals today during the press conference. I felt sad, very sad for them. I think they are trying so hard to come up with a solution to the problem and people, especially the media, expect too much from that right now. They have only been in Rome for a couple of days and people expect them to solve a problem that has been going on for so many years.

I felt sorry for them. They seem so uncomfortable with the whole subject matter, the whole situation and we must pray for them. We must pray that the Holy Spirit guide them and give them the wisdom to come up with satisfactory guidelines to be discussed at their meeting in Texas this June.

My heart also goes out to the Pope. He looks so frail and so heartbroken over this whole fiasco. Of course, there are the victims, and I am not overlooking them. I cried today while watching the Cardinals, the spiritual leaders of our Church have to deal with something like this.

-- Mary Lu (marylu (mlc327@juno.com),), April 24, 2002

Answers

Mary Lu, I think it is a time to celebrate, not to lament. Please read my other thread called "When will the secular media... etc".

God Bless Us.

-- Atila (me@somewhere.com), April 24, 2002.


I think the AOC has got to go, but if it doesn't, we need to start prosucution these "EVIL" parents that would install terror into the hearts and minds of these fragial souls. As for church, I see nothing wroung with it.

-- Tony (awalker@teknett.com), April 24, 2002.

Mary - This is time for a form celebration as the inner decay in parts of the Churchis being brought forward. Let us hope the Pope and Cardinals have the honour and dignity to eradicate it.

-- Jean Bouchard (jeanb@cwk.imag.net), April 25, 2002.

It's typical of you, Jean-- If I understand you --to call this ''decay'' in the Church.

No decay attaches to the Catholic Church, no matter how badly some would like that. What you call the Church's decay is shameful indeed; but it is the sinning PRIESTS that carry all the blame. Their personal sin, and the ineptness and cowardice of a few bishops are what causes scandal in the Church.

Take the case of Judas, who SOLD Our Lord to His enemies, for 30 pieces of silver. Can you justly say that there was DECAY in the twelve apostles? Is the Church decaying every time I, or another practicing Catholic commit a sin?

There have been many evil people inside the Catholic Church throughout history. But they were not decay. They were sinners who fell from grace. --There are Mafiosos right now, in Italy and in the U.S., who are nominal Catholics. We can't cut them out like some tumor; as if this ''decay'' were intolerable.

We pray for them. We denounce them and we excommunicate a few. The Church does. The Church will also do what's just now with the present scandalous individuals.

You ought to have the decency to distinguish between individual sinners in the faith, and decay in the Church. There is no DECAY; unless you believe the Holy Spirit abides in a state of decay.

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), April 25, 2002.


Mary Lu,

Welcome to the forum! Remember though that it is accessible to *everyone* on the internet, so we do get our share of evil/malicious people here too. They get deleted out in the end, but always have their "input" first.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), April 25, 2002.



Yea, inheriting the wind is strictly forbidden and evil, even thoe it's perfectly fine in the bible. :rolleyes:

-- Tony (awalker@teknett.com), April 25, 2002.

Mary - This is time for a form of celebration as the "inner apathy" in parts of the Church is being brought foreward. Let us hope the Pope and Cardinals have the honour and dignity to eradicate it.

inner turning of heads inner looking the other way inner hoping and praying it will stop inner transferring of priests to unsuspecting parishes

Personally I liked the words "inner rot" as the Church is composed not only of God but of all it's members including the "bad" priests. The Church has often been compared to a tree and we all know that when part of the tree is sick and "rots" it can infect the whole tree and kill it. Hopefully this rotten limb is cut off and can no longer infect the tree that we all love so much. Ellen

-- Ellen K. Hornby (dkh@canada.com), April 26, 2002.


Cardinals Hail Zero-Tolerance Idea Fri Apr 26,11:06 PM ET By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - With Roman Catholic leaders pressured to act decisively against abusive priests, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia insisted Friday the group was unanimously behind a "zero tolerance" policy for abusers.

"All of the cardinals are agreed on zero tolerance, and by that I mean that we all are agreed that no priest guilty of even one act of sexual abuse of a minor will function in any ecclesial ministry or any capacity in our dioceses," Bevilacqua said before a benefit dinner with seven other U.S. cardinals.

Cardinal Bernard Law, who has been under pressure in Boston to resign for his handling of an abusive priest, received a standing ovation as he entered the dinner Friday evening.

The U.S. cardinals returned from this week's Vatican (news - web sites) summit on the clerical sex abuse crisis struggling to build consensus for a tough approach among the nation's bishops.

Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Sante Fe, N.M., and Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis added their support to a zero-tolerance policy. Flynn heads a committee developing the bishops' collective response to the scandal.

Other cardinals, including Edward Egan of New York and Francis George of Chicago, said this week they aren't sure that Pope John Paul II called for such a policy during the Vatican meeting.

No single cardinal or bishop can enact a national policy, since each diocese is autonomous. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, at its meeting in June, is expected to vote on whether to approve a national policy that will be binding on every diocese.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington said the church may create a national advisory panel of experts to help bishops devise policies for handling sex abuse. He said bishops in every diocese already have committees of lay people for advice on social issues.

As they left Rome, the cardinals said they would recommend a process to defrock any priest who has become "notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory sexual abuse of minors."

Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles said Friday that the pope clearly endorsed zero tolerance for priest sex abuse. Flynn a day earlier said he supported zero-tolerance, though the church might find a role for fallen priests outside "a pastoral setting."

Weakland said the Milwaukee Archdiocese is adopting a zero-tolerance policy. Credible allegations will result in the removal of the accused priest from active ministry pending the results of an archdiocese investigation. Substantiated allegations will be reported to authorities.

Eight cardinals were in Philadelphia to attend a $1,000-a-plate fund- raiser for Catholic University.

Several cardinals, including Law, spoke at the event. Guests leaving the dinner said speakers made no mention of the scandal.

The Boston archdiocese has been the center of the sex abuse scandal after it was disclosed that the archdiocese repeatedly reassigned a priest accused of abusing children.

A spokeswoman for the Boston archdiocese denied reports that Law will be replaced and sent to the Vatican by June.

"The reports ... are without substance, groundless, and appear to be pure uncorroborated speculation," spokeswoman Donna Morrissey said.

The church is the largest denomination in the United States, with about 45,000 priests and 62 million followers, 22 percent of the American population.

Also Friday:

_ Msgr. Frederick Ryan of Kingston, Mass., offered his resignation amid allegations that he molested three boys in the 1970s and '80s.

_ Church officials in New Hampshire removed two priests from their parishes amid allegations that they molested children. One of the men, the Rev. George Robichaud, was charged with assaulting a boy between the ages of 13 and 16 in 1985. He said nothing during his arraignment and there was no telephone listing for him.

Patrick McGee, spokesman for the Diocese of Manchester, said Robichaud was placed on leave Friday. The diocese also removed the Rev. Edward Richard, pastor of St. Patrick in Pelham. He has not been charged, and no telephone listing could be located for him.

_ In a letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, an attorney for nearly 190 alleged victims of priest abuse asked that some clients be allowed to meet privately with church leaders, perhaps during the June meeting.

------------------

Now, to the first part of this, I say HURRAY!!!!! I'm glad to see this, actually. It kind of had me a little worried to think that one time was not enough. But again, I'm glad to see they have this stance.

The second part...the other stories...has me wondering~are there really THAT many priests out there that have abused young children??? Or is the media making it seem like more than there are? Is the media right when they say that all of these victims are coming forward now because they are finding courage in others that are coming forward? Or are there more victims coming out because there are large monetary rewards being given out? I really and truly feel for the victims in the substantiated cases but at the same time, I also feel for the priests that are being accused, made to resign and then a retraction being made later. Yes, I want the ones that did it punished but I hate to think of all of the good ones that are going to be punished that are innocent.

-- Jackiea (sorry@dontlikespam.com), April 27, 2002.


Hi, Jackiea.

You wrote: "I hate to think of all of the good ones that are going to be punished that are innocent."

I would recommend that none of us think about that (except to pray that it does not happen). We should not expect that a lot of "good ones [will] be punished" despite their innoncence. No one will be punished unless he is convicted, and it is not easy to convict an innocent man. That's why I think that we should continue with trust and confidence.

You asked, "[A]re there really THAT many priests out there that have abused young children??? Or is the media making it seem like more than there are?"

You referred to "young children." The communique given to the press by the Vatican and cardinals states that very few cases involve -- and I quote -- "true pedophilia" (i.e., abuse of pre-pubertal kids). I have heard that at least 95% of accusations involve homosexual contact between clergy and teenagers.

But think about this ... There were about 60,000 priests actively serving in the U.S. between 1985 and 2000. No one knows what percentage of them did something wrong. But if it is 1% of them, that would be 600 big sinners (of which perhaps 30 were "true pedophiles"). This is a huge country, with 60 million Catholics and tens of thousands of priests. We have to brace ourselves for a considerable number of guilty men (each of whom probably had multiple victims). Then there will also be the phony accusations from sick-os and evil people out for cash.

Now is the time to pray for healing, renewal, and a purging of the priestly ranks -- according to the will of God.

John

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), April 27, 2002.


No one will be punished unless he is convicted>>>>

Well, John, the sad fact is lots of folks are punished even though they are never proven guilty or never convicted. The stigmatism that hangs over them is a punishment. Think of the Ramseys, OJ, anyone with the last name of Dahmer or McVeigh. Even guilt by association is punishment. When you are accused of something, unfortunately, whether it's true or not, you are always looked at differently after that. There's always that hanging question of "what if?".

(A)nd it is not easy to convict an innocent man. >>>>

I beg to differ, John. Have you seen the statistics of innocent people sent to prison? I heard on the news just yesterday of a state that is ready to abolish the death penalty for that very reason.

You referred to "young children." The communique given to the press by the Vatican and cardinals states that very few cases involve -- and I quote -- "true pedophilia" (i.e., abuse of pre-pubertal kids). I have heard that at least 95% of accusations involve homosexual contact between clergy and teenagers.>>>>>

I know what you're saying, John. And I've read enough of the cases to know that's true. Children of any age are young to me. That's all I meant.

We have to brace ourselves for a considerable number of guilty men (each of whom probably had multiple victims). Then there will also be the phony accusations from sick-os and evil people out for cash.>>>

It is a bitter pill to swallow but you're right.

-- Jackiea (sorry@dontlikespam.com), April 27, 2002.



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