Friday, December 15, 2006

Pope's preacher calls for penance for abuse crisis

The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, the personal preacher to the pope, has called on the Holy Father to declare a day of fasting and penance to publically repent of clergy sex abuse and declare solidarity with its victims.

He told the Holy Father, "The moment has come...to cry before God."

I agree.
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5 comments:

  1. Vir Speluncae CatholicusDecember 16, 2006 at 5:59 AM

    This may seem harsh to some, but before there can be true forgivness, there must be true punishment.

    Call me old-fashioned, but a rapist, any rapist, deserves prison time, at a minimum. I don't care if that rapist wears a 3 piece suit to work, a pull-over shirt, or a Roman Collar. A rapist is a rapist, period.

    True expiation of sin requires WORKS as well as Faith.

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  2. DymphnaDecember 16, 2006 at 6:15 AM

    As a Church, we need some good old fashioned repentance and penance for this.

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  3. AnonymousDecember 16, 2006 at 1:05 PM

    While repentance and penance might work in particular cases, I think the whole crisis is going to be with us for a long time before serious purging measures are taken. There was a too long infiltration of seminaries and there was a tragic lack of papal authority and determination for decades that will keep the scandals popping up and bringing back the tiresome discussion about clergy celibacy in the anti-Catholic media.

    As to Father Raniero Cantalamessa, Pontifical Household preacher, he is one of the initiators of the charismatic experience in the Church. His appointment, together with that of the liberation theology heretic Hummes for the Congregation of the Clergy, never failed to amaze and disappoint me.
    Theophilus

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  4. DymphnaDecember 16, 2006 at 2:43 PM

    Well, Theophilus, I do agree with you on this point: I think we are going to bear the burden of this crisis for a long time to come.

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  5. DymphnaDecember 17, 2006 at 4:00 PM

    Oh, I agree. Penance is certainly voluntary, which is why it would be such a strong thing spiritually, if we, as a Church did communal penance for this.

    You're right, too, about the punishment coming one way or the other.

    I think Satan is going after the Church where it hurts--in the priests. Communication *is* key. It's a shame that so many of us human beings have such a hard time with it.

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