Dolan: “the Church Is Not Afraid to Admit to Its Own Mistakes”

By Alessandro Speciale
Vatican Insider
October 16, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/the-vatican/detail/articolo/18950/

The Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan

The Church is not afraid to admit to its own mistakes. This was the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s message to journalists this morning, during the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization. Exuberant as always, Dolan mentioned a television debate he recently took part in, speaking about the reaction to the paedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church and about other mistakes the Church has committed in the past.

One believer, referring to the television series The Borgias - which paints a gloomy picture of the intrigues of the Curia and the Roman nobility during the Renaissance period - asked Dolan: “How do we defend the Church with stories such as that involving Pope Alexander VI who had a lover?” Dolan’s reply was: “No, he did not just have one lover, he had many! The Church – he added – is not afraid to admit to its own mistakes.”

For the American cardinal “being humble isn’t just a pastoral strategy. It’s an evangelical demand” to ensure the Church fulfils its mission. “The new evangelisation - he added - is to do with conversion of heart and interior renewal.” Returning to the paedophilia scandal, Dolan spoke about Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s “mea culpa” for the sexual abuse committed by priests against minors, pronounced at the shrine of Lough Derg, on the occasion of the Eucharistic Congress which took place in Ireland last year.

Cardinal Ouellet’s gesture had “an amazing credibility. He did it genuinely,” said Dolan, who was chosen by Benedict XVI to join the team of apostolic visitors to guide the Irish Church out of the crisis.

According to the Archbishop of New York, despite recent statistics which reveal a growth in the numbers of non-believers in the country, “America at its core is still very spiritual and very religious.” During the briefing some self-criticisms were made on issues such as homilies in U.S. churches (“Everybody agrees they’re too long and they’re boring”) and the abandonment of the sacrament of penance (“I’m afraid that on so many levels we just gave up”).

The projection of a short film on Islam, by the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Peter Turkson, caused a stir at the Synod of Bishops. The YouTube video shows alarming statistics about the growth of the Muslim population in the world, reminding Christians that “the world is changing” and that they need to “announce the Gospel.”

But some of the bishops who watched the video presentation last Saturday criticised the data shown and the forecasts given as they said these did not take into account factors such as the drop in fertility in Middle Eastern countries. According to the Synod’s English speaking spokesman, Fr. Thomas Rosica, the video sparked a heated debate which continued today.