Theological Notebook: NYT Reporting on Benedict and Sexual Abuse Crisis

[novak]

As Archbishop, Benedict Focused on Doctrine
By KATRIN BENNHOLD and NICHOLAS KULISH
Published: March 27, 2010

The New York Times and Pope Benedict XVI: How it looks to an American in the Vatican
By Cardinal William J. Levada
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Vatican Official Defends Pope’s Handling of CaseBy

Comments

[mushfromnewsies]

This is another response to the NYT story, by the then-presiding judge for Milwaukee:

http://catholicanchor.org/wordpress/?p=601

[bardcat]

I've been wondering if or when you would mention this subject in your journal. I understand the "need" to share articles and perhaps not comment much, but, I would have been interested in your take on all of this.

[novak]

Actually, my take is pretty much the historian's "wait and see how it all shakes out

[bardcat]

Thank you for sharing. I think this is about what I thought you would say. Yes, there are many people, including those in the media who take delight in all of this and are eager to see "our most holy faith" wounded, crippled, perhaps destroyed though it will not be destroyed. Yes, there is a "pervasive problem of sexual abuse of the young" everywhere which is no excuse for what has happened in the Catholic Church. I suppose the Catholic Church will be forced to deal with the issue, I hope so, and the Catholic Church is dealing with the issue to some extent, but I guess the only place I might differ with what you have written, is a belief that the Catholic Church would deal with the issue if not forced to do so.

[novak]

I would still think so, although I might agree with the qualification that "some leaders" might not have been able to do so. I do think that some of the institutional culture of the Church hierarchy was certainly a problem in this case, as many have pointed out before, and I also think that a few other factors were key. An earlier psychological generation's naiveté (or, more graciously, "optimism") that this was a curable psychological malady certain muddied the waters in earlier cases in the 1970s and 80s, as I understand it. I also think that the Church's (quite natural) inclination to look at this in categories of "sin" rather than "crime" probably muddied those waters far more, and to move perpetrators because of the mistake of seeing these as ultimately personal (if wildly flawed) "relationships," more like an affair between a priest and an adult woman, rather than as a child being much more an object of an orientation, at least in original or isolated cases.

Given that little more than a generation ago much of this

[novak]

Amy Lloyd commented on your note "Theological Notebook: NYT Reporting on Benedict and Sexual Abuse Crisis":

"Thanks for the posts Mike. There is alot flying around out there. "

To see the comment thread, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?note.php¬e_id=378399887678&comments&mid=21edafcG135eb01G23e954dGd&n_m=novakfreek%40aol.co