Catholics Rue Sex Scandal but Hands off the Pope, Times LIVE, March 31, 2010

Catholics Rue Sex Scandal, but Hands off the Pope

Times LIVE
March 31, 2010

http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/letters/article382486.ece/Catholics-rue-sex---scandal--but-hands-off-the--pope

Fr Chris Townsend, Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference: The crisis facing the Roman Catholic Church around the world is grave. It points to two major failures: a failure to protect the vulnerable and a failure of leadership.

The Catholic Church in southern Africa has had a process in place for the past 15 years to deal with complaints of sexual abuse of minors by church personnel.

In all our efforts, particularly in the past five years, those responsible for dealing with such complaints have a clear process that ensures these two major failings are minimised.

I do not claim the process is perfect, but it is under constant review and revision to ensure accusations of cover-ups and the double abuse of victims doesn't happen.

The accusations that "the pope, from his protective cocoon in the Vatican, seems not to realise that the institution he heads is now seen to be sheltering the largest single grouping of sexual predators in the world" (Peter Storey, The Times March 31) is painful and, I dare say, inaccurate.

It has been a mark of the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI that he has instituted more open dealing with the issue of sexual abuse of minors by church personnel. To mark out the Roman Catholic Church and itsclergy as sexual predators is disingenuous.

Research done in the US points out that about 3% of Catholic church workers might have been involved in the abuse of minors. Indeed, 3% is too much, but this labelling of the church and church workers as predators conveniently forgets the 97%-plus church workers who are passionate followers of the Lord Jesus. Figures of abusers in other groupings - school teachers, sports coaches, scout leaders - might well be higher than this.

Peter Storey also comments that the pope fails to see how this scandal is damaging the whole church. I see this damage as necessary, particularly as the credibility of the church or any church is damaged by any pastor, priest or minister who abuses the vulnerable from his or her position of authority.

That the church undergoes this in Holy Week is part of a realisation that it is guilty of sins against the vulnerable, and in doing so sins against the very core of the teaching of Jesus. The response to this damage can be to destroy the church or it can be a church that returns to the basics of faith - feed the hungry and protect the vulnerable. This is what Pope Benedict XVI called for in his appeal to the Irish church. To seek and pray for a spiritual renewal is a return to the basics. So, far from being isolated in some ivory tower, I believe the pope feels this shame and its aftermath acutely. He has also seen through to the core of this crisis - a crisis of living faith. As primarily a spiritual leader, his response is a call to a return to living the spirit of Jesus. This is a call to all believers to return to the core of faith in Jesus - a faith that lives to decrease the exploitation of the vulnerable.

This is a call to all who follow Jesus to passionately commit to this ideal.