Pope Francis "Fix My Church"
An ABC News report from Vatican City says that Pope Francis wants to have the Church act "with determination" on the sex abuse cases in the continuing scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church for some time.
Visit: Pope Seeks Decisive Action Against Sex Abuse
While mentioning things that could protect minors, help victims, and prosecute the guilty parties sounds good, some doubt troubles my mind. Here's why: Unfortunately, the report also notes that the Pope recommended following the same "line" that Pope Benedict used. This raises an alert, because Pope Benedict was noted for covering up these kinds of scandals while he was a Cardinal. Admittedly, as Pope, he did try to do some damage control. It was too little, too late.
If Pope Francis is the kind of man that we have seen so far, I would hope and pray, with all due respect, that he will take a much harder line than Pope Benedict ever did. I would hope that any cleric who engaged in such behavior would be summarily excommunicated rather than being shifted from one parish to another. Such behavior is inexcusable in anyone. It is especially abominable in a religious because we are all taught from childhood to respect and revere religious. We are taught to trust them implicitly as people bringing us to G-d.
My husband was an altar boy. Thank G-d nothing happened to him. But it could have.
I offer my deepest prayers to St. Jude, the Patron of Impossible Causes, to help Pope Francis to root out this problem in the Church. Children need to be safe in churches everywhere. I pray that Pope Francis will go far, far beyond his predecessor Pope to work on this troubling problem. Pope Francis is undoubtedly going to uncover a lot of dirty secrets along the way. I believe that he sincerely wants to solve the problem, but he is going to have to go much further than he imagines to do so.
While mentioning things that could protect minors, help victims, and prosecute the guilty parties sounds good, some doubt troubles my mind. Here's why: Unfortunately, the report also notes that the Pope recommended following the same "line" that Pope Benedict used. This raises an alert, because Pope Benedict was noted for covering up these kinds of scandals while he was a Cardinal. Admittedly, as Pope, he did try to do some damage control. It was too little, too late.
If Pope Francis is the kind of man that we have seen so far, I would hope and pray, with all due respect, that he will take a much harder line than Pope Benedict ever did. I would hope that any cleric who engaged in such behavior would be summarily excommunicated rather than being shifted from one parish to another. Such behavior is inexcusable in anyone. It is especially abominable in a religious because we are all taught from childhood to respect and revere religious. We are taught to trust them implicitly as people bringing us to G-d.
My husband was an altar boy. Thank G-d nothing happened to him. But it could have.
I offer my deepest prayers to St. Jude, the Patron of Impossible Causes, to help Pope Francis to root out this problem in the Church. Children need to be safe in churches everywhere. I pray that Pope Francis will go far, far beyond his predecessor Pope to work on this troubling problem. Pope Francis is undoubtedly going to uncover a lot of dirty secrets along the way. I believe that he sincerely wants to solve the problem, but he is going to have to go much further than he imagines to do so.
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