Thursday, November 26, 2009

Nation & World

God and Country by Dan Gilgoff

Blog Fight: Roman Catholic Church vs. New York Times

November 06, 2009 03:53 PM ET | Dan Gilgoff | Permanent Link | Print

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IN DEFENSE OF THE CHURCH

The church should take care of these matters as soon as possible, but within the realm of the church itself.

It's the business of the church and not the non christian public(some just look for scandal in the churches((mainly)) in order to justify their own evils.

I do agree that the church definitely should and I'm sure will clean up what's been going on in their own way(and realize that they do have to answer to God for how they do so do it).

Remember, God is not a disinterested spectator.

May God bless all of us with new insight and peace. Irene

An excuse for Times for Catholic Bashing

Aside from using the whole situation to bash the Catholic Church, she blatantly uses such a situation to show a legitimate issue. My problem here is, in order to create discussion for such issues, is it ALWAYS necessary to create scandal and spread more hurt? That must be the question NY Times Editors must answer. Of course the way they have done it masks this observation, nonetheless an issue that old does not need another scandal that might cause more problems than solutions. Not everything can be solved by sensationalism.

MEMO TO BISHOP DOLAN FROM BEN FRANKIN

"Never pick a fight with with those who buy ink by the barrel."

The Church has made many mistakes - Beginning with Peter denying Christ 3 times on the eve of Christ's Crucifixion. The mistakes of the Church are those of men - Not God. That man sins is no surprise - but that the leaders of the Church conceal or ignore these failings is a tragedy.

Credibility, Accountability and Transparency

Too many bishops have lost credibility where it counts and that is with those who depended on them the most, the children, those victims of sexual abuse by some among their own episcopal ranks as well as ordinary priests.

The USCCB promised Accountability & Transparency back in 2002 but have grudgingly given it since.

Bishops have been especially slow in making public the names and locations of all convicted, known or credibly accused sexual predators among their ranks and many like Roger Mahony in LA, Lori in Bridgeport still have not complied with courts’ orders to release files, records, testimony and depositions related to known abusers.

A number of bishops of dioceses, like our own Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on the eve of going to trial in another misguided attempt to avoid responsibility for what they and their predecessors have done in enabling and facilitating felony crimes of sexual abuse, crimes that would have landed them in jail except for the vagaries of the then existing statutes of limitation.

In Delaware today there are no criminal or civil statutes of limitation going forward on the sexual abuse of children. There also was a two year civil window for previously time barred cases of abuse – by anyone – which closed in July of 2009.

However, the institutional Church thumbed its nose at the law by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on the Sunday evening before the DeLuca 8 trial was to begin.

So much for accountability and transparency.

It isn’t about money, it’s about accountability and transparency for the crimes and sins of the past.

There is no doubt about it, it is truly a scandal but the scandal is about the abuse of power and authority in the institutional church.

It is about the bishops’ abuse of their power and their moral authority by their lack of anger, their lack of outrage, their lack of pastoral concern for the “least of the Lord’s little ones.”

The bishops have yet to address or answer for their very real complicity, along with their predecessors, in protecting predators rather than victims.

So individuals like the archbishop of New York will probably continue to find the chutzpah to complain about anti-Catholic bias much in the vein of Cardinal Bernard Law’s tirade against the Boston Globe but most people will see it as more smoke and mirrors, a diversionary tactic at best. To most of the People of God such actions continue to be an embarrassment.

ANTI-CATHOLIC SLOGANS!

hi,

i really am disappointed with the babble going on here. i think paul newman once said in a movie: "what we have here, is a failure to communicate." on blogs, sometimes there are "impersonations" due to the anonymity.the "communication" is that this is also a civil rights issue.no one defends abuse, but i don't know of anyone who left the country, or tried to sue president clinton,(what? our president isn't held to a higher standard?) after monica! looks like he's been well rewarded for his actions. those bringing up the negativity, might as well start investigating "maria monk" sex abuse from more than 100 years ago. i'm surprised that no one is agreeing with the thomas nast cartoon of bishops swimming to american shores with alligator teeth hats.

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Dan Gilgoff covers religion for U.S. News & World Report. He is the author of The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, and is a former politics editor at beliefnet. E-mail Dan at godandcountry@usnews.com.

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