Laity See beyond Horrors of Abuse but New Case Cries out for Radical Penance, Spirit Daily, October 13, 2009

Laity See beyond Horrors of Abuse but New Case Cries out for Radical Penance

Spirit Daily
October 13, 2009

http://spiritdaily.com/canadabishop.htm

In the wake of news that a bishop in Canada was caught with child pornography, and reports that he had traveled to Thailand as a "sexual tourist," we can only say that this is the most egregious case yet in the years-long revelations of clerical abuse -- the greatest Church transgressions since the Middle Ages -- and necessitates more than a bureaucratic response. For perspective, let us remember that there are 2,795 dioceses in the world, 71 in Canada alone (meaning a bishop for each one, plus auxiliaries). Always, there are unfortunate types. At the same time, the laity should be applauded for seeing beyond scandal and other failings to the power of the sacraments.

Perhaps the best advice that can be given the hierarchy is Friday's Mass reading:

Reading 1

Jl 1:13-15; 2:1-2

Gird yourselves and weep, O priests! wail, O ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! The house of your God is deprived of offering and libation. Proclaim a fast, call an assembly; Gather the elders, all who dwell in the land, Into the house of the LORD, your God, and cry to the LORD!

Alas, the day! for near is the day of the LORD, and it comes as ruin from the Almighty.

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; Yes, it is near, a day of darkness and of gloom, a day of clouds and somberness!Like dawn spreading over the mountains, a people numerous and mighty! Their like has not been from of old, nor will it be after them, even to the years of distant generations.