Periscope


Home Page > Blogs > News blogs > Periscope > Is Catholic Church getting bad rap on pedophiles? Misguided forgiveness at heart of church scandal says expert
Periscope by Niall O'Dowd

Is Catholic Church getting bad rap on pedophiles? Misguided forgiveness at heart of church scandal says expert

Posted on Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 10:11 AM
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail
comment on article 82 Comments
 

RSS


Recent Posts

Archives

submit to reddit

A leading Catholic lay figure I know who is a deeply compassionate and caring man gives a different read on the church crisis in Ireland than you will read anywhere else.

His points are thought provoking.

Essentially, he says the reason the matter of child abuse got out of hand can be found at the very kernel of the meaning of being a Catholic priest.

"The entire philosophy is based on forgiveness, whether it is confession or in daily life" he says." They are thought first and foremost in the seminary that Jesus forgave even the most dreadful of sins."

He argues that when fellow priests and bishops were faced with men who had abused children, their initial response was to forgive, as they had been trained to do all their church lives.

He says, categorically, that it was the wrong response, However, he says the fact that they knew the guilty men, that the men probably pleaded for forgiveness, that, as in any body of men attracted to the same mission, they felt deeply about them, then forgiveness seemed a viable and often best option.

He is not denying that was not the motive of many who feared the damage for the church first and foremost not the victims.

But he believes many who allowed the priests back into practice were motivated by the aspect of the church's teachings, most stressed by the teaching of Jesus, the ability to forgive.

However, he believes it may come down to the American church to save the Irish one, which essentially created the American church from their own history of priests emigrating here.

Several bishops from America, including Egan in New York and O'Malley in Boston have been called in to staunch the tide.

The heart of it my friend says must be the American principle of no more cover ups, but he says it is vital that the aspect of forgiveness not be overlooked as a factor in the massive scandal that has ensued.

"I think many were not bad men, but misguided, who had the aspect of forgiveness as their main reason for allowing bad priests to continue. I do not believe they covered up in order to endanger children but they believed the offending priest could be made to see the error of his ways and change his life."

There you have it, interesting and thought provoking as I said.


print this article Print
email this articleE-mail

82 Comments

15 - 82 | See all comments

themurphia | Aug 02, 2011, 05:57 PM EDT
eiriamach:'All the world's a stage and the men and women in it merely players...They have their exits and their entrances...And every man in his time plays many parts...'And yourself...are you a thespian...? Are any of us who we say we are..?

Report abuse

themurphia | Aug 02, 2011, 05:29 PM EDT
eiriamach:Now it's funny you should say that..!;-) I think the best of all worlds would be for Irish children old and young to be bilingual with neither language dominant...!It saddens me greatly that Young Irish people think Irish is not worth learning because it is not the language of Commerce...I am a firm beliver in learning for learnings sake...learn anything and everything you can and then if you've got any time left over learn some more...!Yep definitely a film there...!We need another Maureen O'Hara for Granuaile...!Sorry about typos don't notice them until I've posted the comments...!

Report abuse

eiriamach | Aug 02, 2011, 03:52 PM EDT
avcavker, I'm not really a history buff but only developed an interest recently in American Civil War and labor movement history while I researched my immigrant ancestors (Famine-era) from Ireland. I needed Renaissance and late medieval history for my studies in literature, but immediately after I did that, I moved over to Irish literature, which is fascinating in every era, not just Shakespeare's! Machiavelli and James I of England are side interests for me. A little of this, a little of that! Well now I really must go to Nova Scotia next fall and find out whether I can communicate with anyone in Irish up there. I've wanted to travel to NS with my daughter for a long time. I agree that loss of everyday Irish is a tragedy, but I also believe that English has begun its demise and within the next two centuries will die altogether, and Irish will return to common use, maybe widespread use, then. I won't live to see it, but I believe that Irish cannot die if only because of its great literature and songs, seanchas, etc. -------> themurphia, I've been waiting for someone in Hollywood or Ireland to make that film you wrote of, and if it doesn't show up soon, you and I and ancavker if he or she is interested will just have to collaborate on the screenplay. I can't afford to 'produce' it though--can you act at all? I'll bet you can.

Report abuse

themurphia | Aug 02, 2011, 03:47 PM EDT
Buggery buggery buggery...Someone has beaten us to the film rights...Anyways I guess 'The Irish Queen' sounded a little too much like a pratiai..not that there's anything wrong with that...!However I have found...I think the definitive book on 'Granuaile'...The O'Malley was older than Bess...but both died in the same year... spooky!...anvaker:I am not a history buff just a geek..not the same thing...I think the use of the various languages is explained in the contexts... socuial formal/Court and scholarly...I agree with you about the Irish language but it is not yet lost...just in need of rescue...English is a wonderful language it's just not *my* native language...English Literature is one of my best/ favourite subjects and of course ties in with history...I love the use of 'the' as an indication of a high status Irish name...anyone know the origin...wanna tell me...?or do I have to add that to my 'to do' list..?

Report abuse

ancavker | Aug 02, 2011, 03:19 PM EDT
eiramach: I am a history buff as well, and find the Elizabethan/Tudor period fascinating too. As far as the language, I have a relative who is a fluent Irish speaker, and he can communicate well enough with Scots Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia, and that is with Munster Irish, Not Ulster/Donegal Irish. Me personally I believe the loss of the Irish language as the everyday language of Ireland is a great tragedy. That being said, the Irish have done wonderful things with the English language as well.

Report abuse

CitizenWhy | Aug 02, 2011, 11:02 AM EDT
Rationalization. The essence: the hierarchy disgraced themselves and have not been held accountable for their crimes. They willingly led priests into temptation and they willingly failed to deliver children from great evil. How could they recite the Our Father, the words of Christ, and not see what they were doing? Let them answer to Christ, not to pop psychology.

Report abuse

themurphia | Aug 02, 2011, 05:20 AM EDT
eiriamach:Perhaps her longevity was due to the fact that she had 'the body of but a weak and feeble woman but..the heart and stomach of a King...!I saw both the Cate Balnchett and the Helen Mirren films portrayals...I'm a bit of a history geek...Mirren's rendition of the speech to her troops at Tilbury made the hair stand up on the back of my neck...! Bess obviously had good speech writers mind you when you look at the calibre of her Court she was surrounded by brilliance...I'd love it if someone made a film about the Irish Queen with the O'Malley as the central role...maybe we should write the screenplay...You for Bess me for Grace...returning to the subject of language Latin of course was the language of scholars probably another reason she and Grace chose that as the preferred medium... Thanks for Joyce quote...wasn't familiar with that one...Someone once told me that Joyce said Irish men were either priests or homosexuals... are you aware of that one ...?I can't find it on web...Anon

Report abuse

quixotic | Aug 01, 2011, 09:41 PM EDT
Look, in order to ensure a sufficient number of 'vocations' the church abducted children as young as 13 to enter minor seminaries. Gullible Irish parents, in particular, were only too happy to have their children serve a life dedicated to Jesus. In order to maintain their 'vocation' the orders and the Bishops established lives of isolation for these children. Isolating them from families and temptations of the opposite sex these young peopole were isolated from families and natural association fromt he opposite sex. Their mentors were very aware of the danger and warned often of 'particular friendships'. they knew only too well what happened to young people who grew through puberty like this. Some were strong, many actually, and resisted acting on their fantasties. Others were not strong enough and acted on their attraction to nubile males. Once they faltered, it was only too easy to continue the behavior. Check on the time span of these horrible acts -- thirty or forty years ago. Exactly when the church was still abducting these young men. All the rest is just garbage.

Report abuse

eiriamach | Aug 01, 2011, 07:52 PM EDT
You're probably right, themurphia, and surely right about Q. Elizabeth's sex life. What did James Joyce say about history--that it was a nightmare he was trying to awaken from? I prefer fantasy to Elizabethan history for sure! The literature though, that's a different story. Did you see that film that came out about Q. Elizabeth a few years ago? It captured some of the fantastic parts of her life.

Report abuse

themurphia | Aug 01, 2011, 05:32 PM EDT
I think you are straying into the realms of fantasy now an muinteoir..!From what little I know I don't think she was short of courtiers willing to warm her up...On the language point I think French was the language of the Court...Scots Gaelic would be the language of peasants and from what I remember there was a little 'domestic' with the Scots cousin so my guess is that she wouldn't be that conversant with the Gallic but would have had enough to understand and make herself understood...her Latin was good and she had a prayer book which she read religiously haha...I know she died of smallpox hence the white masque she wore towards the end to hide the sores...irresistible!

Report abuse

eiriamach | Aug 01, 2011, 05:11 PM EDT
It's amazing that Elizabeth lived and reigned so long, given her medical background and the fact that, as a "virgin" she had to sit bare-chested in those drafty old damp castles and probably had pneumonia half the time!

Report abuse

eiriamach | Aug 01, 2011, 05:08 PM EDT
ancavker & themurphia, it's a fascinating discussion you're having! One question: was there a big difference between Scots Gaellc and Irish Gaelic in the 16th century? I recall reading somewhere that even in the 19th century, anyone with an island Gaelic language could travel up the coast of Ireland, into the smaller islands and on into Scotland, and be able to understand the Gaelic spoken by people along the way. My own great-grandfather, who grew up in Scotland, had great Irish, which was still the literary Gaelic language of Scotland when he was a schoolchild. The Irishwoman he met in Dublin and married about 1890 had not a word of it! As I think themurphia mentioned below, Q. Elizabeth probably had congenital syphilis that her mother got from her father. And the 'French pox' that Henry passed along to his wives was probably the reason why he had no surviving male offspring and why Elizabeth was infertile. This is medical guesswork by those who think they recognize the symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases in the portraits of the royals.

Report abuse

McNamara31 | Aug 01, 2011, 04:52 PM EDT
I think at this point we are looking too deep and far to rationalize why the church behaved in such a way. Recently one of my children told me that a student at his high school had been expelled for improper behavior. The principal reacted to the situation and removed the student from the school. A simple H.S. principal had more “common sense” (and ethics) than the Vatican and all the canon lawyers within. Why?

Report abuse

themurphia | Aug 01, 2011, 12:43 PM EDT
ancavker:possibly enough for small talk we can only speculate...but probably not sufficient for a meeting between rulers discussing matters of State and Territory...Elizabeth was deemed Queen of Ireland but Grace had other ideas.. I think Latin was the common political tongue for both...I find the whole subject quite fascinating...It gives a whole new perspective to me on the Anglo Irish Political history of the time...but I am a bit swotty...I read a bit more last night and the 'Virgin Queen' was definitely a misnomer given the speculaton about her relationships with mebers of her court not to mention with John Parr and whether or not she bore a child for him when she was very young... muinteoir eiriamach is right when he said Spenser used this fiction to political effect turning a negative image of 'Barren Bess' into a positive one of a patriotic 'Prince' prepared to forfeit marriage and motherhood for devotion to her country...Her decison to remain unmarried was as much because she was not prepared to marry a Catholic as her devotion to Albion...

Report abuse

ancavker | Aug 01, 2011, 12:04 PM EDT
themurphia: If she coversed in Scots Gaelic, than show would have at least a reasonable understanding of Irish.

Report abuse





Log into IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

E-Mail:
Password:
 Remember me Forgot my password
Not a member? Register Now!
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail