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"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured." -- Pope Benedict XVI The True Story Since 1985, the Catholic Church in the United States has been living in the shadow of the clerical sexual abuse crisis. In 2002, revelations in Boston ignited an institutional nightmare. More recently, the scandal erupted in Ireland and spread across Europe. There is now a rush by some, both inside and outside the Church, to place direct blame upon Pope Benedict XVI. There is no escaping the fact that Pope Benedict, as the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now as pope, has played a historically pivotal and personal role in the Vatican's response to the crisis. Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis is a groundbreaking, critically objective assessment of the criticism facing the pope as well as a review of his real response to the victims, abusers, bishops, media, and the millions of Catholics worldwide who continue to be justifiably horrified by the scandal. The first and foremost objective for this book is the truth -- no matter how difficult to face -- and letting the pope's record speak for itself. "No one imagines that this painful situation will be resolved swiftly. Real progress has been made, yet much more remains to be done." -- Pope Benedict XVI
Since 1985, the Catholic Church in the United States has been living in the shadow of the clerical sexual abuse crisis. In 2002, revelations in Boston ignited an institutional nightmare. More recently, the scandal erupted in Ireland and spread across Europe. There is now a rush by some, both inside and outside the Church, to place direct blame upon Pope Benedict XVI. There is no escaping the fact that Pope Benedict, as the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now as pope, has played an historically pivotal and personal role in the Vatican's response to the crisis. Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis is a groundbreaking, critically objective assessment of the criticism facing the pope as well as a review of his real response to the victims, abusers, bishops, media, and the millions of Catholics worldwide who continue to be justifiably horrified by the scandal. The first and foremost objective for this book is the truth - no matter how difficult to face - and letting the pope's record speak for itself. Book jacket.
In this book the clergy sex abuse controversy is considered in light of three basic faith convictions that have been brought into clearer focus during and since the Second Vatican Council. The first guiding claim builds on Vatican II’s teaching, now championed by Pope Francis, that through the anointing of the Spirit of God the baptized are gifted and summoned to live out the prophetic office of all the faithful people of God by actively participating in the life and mission of the church. This is achieved through personal and collective discernment by means of synodality, that is, as all the members of the church “we” are finding our way together. The prophetic gift and office guide this journey by providing a sense of the faith in all the faithful not only to recognize, receive, and witness to the Word of God, but just as important in our endeavor in this book, to heed, receive, and respond to the voice of the Spirit perceived in the laments of victims grieving their violations, their wounds, and the disfunctions at all levels of the church made manifest in the clergy sex abuse. This requires a deeper assessment of these issues provided by post-Vatican II clarifications of social and structural sin based on a realistic assessment of the sources of the laments and conflicts, the wounds and disfunctions in the church that provide the impetus and conditions for genuine church reform. These claims will provide the theological framework of the book.
The book discusses the changing relationship between American Catholic Bishops and civil authorities in the United States, as civil authority has eclipsed traditional Catholic ecclesiastical privilege and clerical exemption resulting from the hierarchical mismanagement and cover-up of clerical sexual abuse in the United States.
Almost as soon as the white smoke began rising from the Sistine Chapel confirming his election, Pope Benedict XVI began seeing his pontificate hijacked by ongoing revelations of sex abuse by thousands of Roman Catholic priests. The scandal, which first erupted in the United States during his predecessor's pontificate, has become a global phenomenon, with fresh allegations of pedophilia and other priestly abuses most of which occurred decades ago in Ireland, Belgium, Germany, England and elsewhere, from the Philippines to Brazil. Supporters of Benedict say he has acted forthrightly to deal with the crisis; critics say that earlier, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict did not react forcefully enough. Experts now ask what long-range impact if any the scandal will have on the global church and its 1.2 billion faithful. The answer is murkier than it needs to be, say critics, because of the Vatican's ultra-secretiveness. More openness, they claim, might have stopped the crisis from spinning seemingly out of control.
Since the mid-1980s, the Catholic Church has been embroiled in a profound crisis of clerical sexual abuse. In many Western countries, paedophile priests have been exposed and convicted, and the Church's moral and social standing has suffered deeply. Scandals in Ireland and America have been extensively documented and much debated. The English Catholic Church has also been shaken to its roots by allegations of abuse, but until now the situation in England has not been fully examined. This book, by one of the UK's leading lawyers in the field, is a shocking exposé of Catholic sex abuse cases in England over the past forty years. Exploring the many facets of the crisis, it analyses the ways in which the English Church has responded - and the ways in which it has failed. The author considers the causes of abuse, allegations of cover-ups, campaigns led by victims, battles within the Church, the legal dimensions and the debate around the laicisation ('defrocking') of individual priests. He attempts to answer the following questions: How serious has the problem been in the English Catholic Church? How effectively has the Church responded? Can it hope to recover from this scandal - and, crucially, can it deal credibly and effectively with future allegations of abuse?
Winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Award: Popular Presentation of the Catholic Faith. (First Place). With atheism on the rise and millions tossing off religion, why would anyone consider the Catholic Church? Brandon Vogt, a bestselling author and the content director for Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, shares his passionate search for truth, a journey that culminated in the realization that Catholicism was right about a lot of things, maybe even everything. His persuasive case for the faith reveals a vision of Catholicism that has answers our world desperately needs and reminds those already in the Church what they love about it. A 2016 study by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 25 percent of adults (39 percent of young adults) describe themselves as unaffiliated with any religion. Millions of these so-called “nones” have fled organized religion and many more have rejected God altogether. Brandon Vogt was one of those nones. When he converted to Catholicism in college, he knew how confusing that decision was to many of his friends and family. But he also knew that the evidence he discovered pointed to one conclusion: Catholicism is true. To his delight, he discovered it was also exceedingly good and beautiful. Why I Am Catholic traces Vogt’s spiritual journey, making a refreshing, twenty-first century case for the faith and answering questions being asked by agnostics, nones, and atheists, the audience for his popular website, StrangeNotions.com, where Catholics and atheists dialogue. With references to Catholic thinkers such as G. K. Chesterton, Ven. Fulton Sheen, St. Teresa of Calcutta, and Bishop Robert Barron, Vogt draws together lines of evidence to help seekers discover why they should be Catholic as an alternative. Why I Am Catholic serves as a compelling reproposal of the Church for former Catholics, a persuasive argument for truth and beauty to those who have become jaded and disenchanted with religion, and at the same time offers practicing Catholics a much-needed dose of confidence and clarity to affirm their faith against an increasingly skeptical culture.
Taking on a still-controversial topic, a diverse group of experts, including victims and clergy, offers reflections on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, examining what the church has done—and what it still needs to do—to protect children. Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002–2012 is a thoughtful, multidisciplinary commentary. Beginning when the scandal first broke in Boston in 2002, this first-of-its-kind work offers a wide range of opinion, both positive and negative, on what has been done in the ensuing ten years to stop and prevent such abuse. Through the contributions here, readers can delve into the world of the church hierarchy and into the minds of abusive priests and their victims. The book presents the views of leading academics and psychologists, but also allows the church to speak. First-person insights from victims are shared, as in a chapter written by a woman abused by a clergy member as an adolescent. She explains what happened, the resulting trauma, how she healed, and what she thinks needs to be done to prevent future abuse—a subject that still makes headlines and stirs debate.
"The priesthood is going through a dark time", according to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Robert Cardinal Sarah. "Wounded by the revelation of so many scandals, disconcerted by the constant questioning of their consecrated celibacy, many priests are tempted by the thought of giving up and abandoning everything." In this book, the pope emeritus and the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments give their brother priests, and the whole Church, a message of hope. They honestly address the spiritual challenges faced by priests today, while pointing to deeper conversion to Jesus Christ as the key to faithful and fruitful priestly ministry and genuine reform. Benedict XVI and Cardinal Sarah "fraternally offer these reflections to the people of God and, of course, in a spirit of filial obedience, to Pope Francis", who has said, "I think that celibacy is a gift for the Church. . . . I don't agree with allowing optional celibacy, no." Responding to calls for refashioning the priesthood, including proposals from participants in the Amazonian Synod, two wise, spiritually astute pastors explain the importance of priestly celibacy for the good of the whole Church. Drawing on Vatican II, they present celibacy as not just "a mere precept of ecclesiastical law", but as a sharing in Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross and his identity as Bridegroom of the Church.
Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. "The truth, we are told, will make us free. It is time to free Catholics, lay as well as clerical, from the structures of deceit that are our subtle modern form of papal sin. Paler, subtler, less dramatic than the sins castigated by Orcagna or Dante, these are the quiet sins of intellectual betrayal." --from the Introduction From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills comes an assured, acutely insightful--and occasionally stinging--critique of the Catholic Church and its hierarchy from the nineteenth century to the present. Papal Sin in the past was blatant, as Catholics themselves realized when they painted popes roasting in hell on their own church walls. Surely, the great abuses of the past--the nepotism, murders, and wars of conquest--no longer prevail; yet, the sin of the modern papacy, as revealed by Garry Wills in his penetrating new book, is every bit as real, though less obvious than the old sins. Wills describes a papacy that seems steadfastly unwilling to face the truth about itself, its past, and its relations with others. The refusal of the authorities of the Church to be honest about its teachings has needlessly exacerbated original mistakes. Even when the Vatican has tried to tell the truth--e.g., about Catholics and the Holocaust--it has ended up resorting to historical distortions and evasions. The same is true when the papacy has attempted to deal with its record of discrimination against women, or with its unbelievable assertion that "natural law" dictates its sexual code. Though the blithe disregard of some Catholics for papal directives has occasionally been attributed to mere hedonism or willfulness, it actually reflects a failure, after long trying on their part, to find a credible level of honesty in the official positions adopted by modern popes. On many issues outside the realm of revealed doctrine, the papacy has made itself unbelievable even to the well-disposed laity. The resulting distrust is in fact a neglected reason for the shortage of priests. Entirely aside from the public uproar over celibacy, potential clergy have proven unwilling to put themselves in a position that supports dishonest teachings. Wills traces the rise of the papacy's stubborn resistance to the truth, beginning with the challenges posed in the nineteenth century by science, democracy, scriptural scholarship, and rigorous history. The legacy of that resistance, despite the brief flare of John XXIII's papacy and some good initiatives in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council (later baffled), is still strong in the Vatican. Finally Wills reminds the reader of the positive potential of the Church by turning to some great truth tellers of the Catholic tradition--St. Augustine, John Henry Newman, John Acton, and John XXIII. In them, Wills shows that the righteous path can still be taken, if only the Vatican will muster the courage to speak even embarrassing truths in the name of Truth itself.