Church Abuse Cases: Mgr Scicluna Speaks on Need to Amputate to Heal, Times of Malta, May 29, 2010

Church Abuse Cases: Mgr Scicluna Speaks on Need to "Amputate" to Heal"

Times of Malta
May 29, 2010

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100529/local/church-abuse-cases-mgr-scicluna-speaks-on-need-to-amputate-to-heal

The Church 'may have to amputate to heal' the Vatican's top prosecutor in sex abuse cases by priests, Mgr Charles Scicluna, has warned.

Speaking in St Peter's Basilica during a Mass of reparation for abuse committed by priests, and for healing within the church, Mgr Scicluna said that when the innocence of children was trampled upon, broken, sullied, abused, and destroyed, then "the earth becomes arid and the whole world sad."

In a speech given wide publicity in the Catholic media, Mgr Scicluna said that if a member of the church was an "occasion of sin," then there was no other choice but to cut this tie.

Mgr Scicluna is the Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and worked closely with Cardinal Ratzinger, today Pope Benedict XVI.

He accompanied the Pope on his visit to Malta, when the Pope had an unplanned meeting with victims of child abuse.

National Catholic Reporter said that Mgr Scicluna is widely seen as the architect of the more aggressive approach to the crisis which emerged in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after 2001.

In his homily this morning, Mgr Scicluna spoke on the relationship between Jesus and children, saying that the church had always had a special care and solicitude for children and the weak.

Quoting St. Gregory the Great, Mgr Scicluna suggested that sex abuse sins were especially heinous when committed by priests.

"After having taken a profession of holiness, anyone who destroys others through words or deed would have been better off if their misdeeds had caused them to die in secular dress, rather than, through their holy office, being imposed as an example for others in their sins. Without doubt, if they had fallen all by themselves, their suffering in Hell would be easier to bear."

The remedy to such scandals offered by God as the "Divine Surgeon," according to Mgr Scicluna, was to "cut out [disease] in order to heal," and to "amputate in order to restore health."

Beyond such drastic measures, Mgr Scicluna also proposed the "preventive medicine" of solid formation for future priests, calling on them to be on fire with the faith, making them salt and light for the world.