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Extra-Ordinary Monkeys

Catholics unfazed by child abuse

Well if the red tops can make up misleading headlines so can this blog.

What the title should say is "Practicing Catholics unfazed by abuse scandals; Pope’s popularity increasing" as per this report on CatholicCulture.org.


I'm not really surprised by the findings as it's evident that the Church is serious and has been serious for some time now about safeguarding children and other vulnerable people. I am, however, rather disturbed (but again not surprised) by these two items:

the majority of Catholics (54%) believe that the Vatican is “out of touch” with Catholics, while 60% believe that local priests are “in touch”

<....>

58% of practicing Catholics say that they “would let priests marry”; a smaller majority (54%) “would allow women priests”

Read the whole report on the Catholic Culture website.

The myth of the paedophile priest

Fr Dwight Longenecker has a post on the thorny subject of child abuse by priests. What he says deserves to be read and his full post is here. Some of the points for consideration he raises are:

• Priestly celibacy is not the issue - married men are more likely to abuse children than unmarried
• Most child abuse takes place within the home.
• All religious groups have pedophile scandals, and the Catholics (while the largest religious group) are at the bottom of the list statistically.
• Child abuse is prevalent in all areas of society: schools, youth organizations, sports, etc.
• Statistically, of all the professions, Christian clergy are least likely to offend. Doctors, Farmers and Teachers are the professions most likely to abuse children--not clergy.
• Among clergy offenders Catholic priests are least likely to offend.

He also has further insightful commentary on the issue here.

The Pope's letter to the Church in Ireland

I've been slow to post anything about Benedict XVI's letter to the Irish Church. There is plenty of eloquent comment out there including by Fr Ray Blake, Fr Tim Finigan and Fr Z.

All I want to say is that the letter confirms my belief that we have been given a wonderful gift in Pope Benedict XVI. Let us pray his reign is a long one.

What's going on here?

I'll leave you to figure out this one!

Friday thought

Statistically, most Catholics today come nowhere near the Liturgy, and even when they occasionally do, there is the serious risk of their being infected with what one might term 'spiritual food poisoning' from the diet of poor translations, gross informality, trite music, and any number of abuses.... with which they may be confronted.

Dom Alcuin Reid: "Do we need a New Liturgical Movement?" UK CIEL Conference, London 2004