By Jennifer Green
The Ottawa Citizen
April 3, 2010
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Keeping+faith/2759913/story.html
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Photo by: CATHAL MCNAUGHTON, REUTERS, The Ottawa Citizen |
As the Roman Catholic Church celebrates Easter under the shadow of scandal, the Citizen's Jennifer Green talks to area parishioners who may have questions of their church, but not of their God.
Tens of thousands of Ottawa-area Christians are celebrating their faith this weekend, but for some, the religious holiday has a uniquely sombre feel to it this year.
The Roman Catholic Church is in crisis, its faithful haunted by past and present -- misdeeds of yesteryear, and the church's present-day reaction to them.
The taint of scandal has cast a pall over the church during what should be a sacred time of reverence.
In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI has apologized to victims around the world, called on abuser priests to tell the truth, and charged bishops to co-operate with civil authorities.
But it has not silenced the indignation. In recent weeks, protesters in Germany, England and Ireland called for the pontiff to resign after reports that he failed to discipline and remove a German priest later convicted of molesting boys. The priest was allowed to continue serving in Munich, then overseen by Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope. Only this month was the Munich priest suspended, more than two decades after being convicted.
The Ottawa area has not escaped. It has been a trying time for Roman Catholics here and in the Valley.
Bernard Prince, a former Pembroke priest convicted of molesting 13 young boys over a 20-year period, was ousted from the Catholic priesthood after being convicted in January 2008 of sexual misconduct and sentenced to four years in a federal penitentiary.
Msgr. Robert Borne, who for years was the parish priest at St. James Church in Eganville, was charged in April 2009 with gross indecency, indecent assault and breach of trust in connection with five alleged victims between 1977 and 1995. A huge part of the religious life of Renfrew County, he was sometimes called the bishop's right-hand man.
Most recently, Raymond Lahey, former bishop of Antigonish, N.S., was arrested at the Ottawa airport in September and faces charges of possession of child pornography.
A forensic examination of a laptop computer allegedly revealed photographs of naked boys as young as eight.
Much to the outrage of many parishioners, Lahey, 69, awaits his 2011 trial at a priests' residence near Billings Bridge.
Some say the attacks on the Pope himself are nothing more than anti-Catholicism, an attempt by the secular world to gag the voice of moral authority. Robert Moynihan, editor of the magazine Inside the Vatican, wrote in his blog: "The goal, it seems, is to 'strike the shepherd.' Why? To silence the Church's voice." Others say the scandals may push the church into positive change, perhaps even a reconsideration of priestly celibacy.
The Citizen talked to several local Catholics -- young, old, those enamoured of Vatican II's liberal reforms, and members of the more conservative Opus Dei. The sample is by no means representative, but one consensus did emerge: They may question their church, but not their God.
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