What happened?
Pope Francis has called on all Catholics to engage in penitential prayer and fasting following the publishing of a grand jury report into sexual abuse in Pennsylvania. In a letter to “the People of God”, the Pope said that the Church needed to beg forgiveness for its failure to act, calling for Christians to join together in penance to “awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says ‘never again’ to every form of abuse.”
What the commentators are saying
In response to Pope Francis’s letter on Tuesday, Marie Collins, former member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, tweeted: “Statements from Vatican or Pope should stop telling us how terrible abuse is and how all must be held accountable. Tell us instead what you are doing to hold them accountable.That is what we want to hear. ‘Working on it’ is not an acceptable explanation for decades of delay.”
Following the Pennsylvania report, the response to the church’s handling of abuse was one of near universal condemnation. In particular, calls for the then Bishop of Pittsburgh, Cardinal Wuerl, to resign over his role in the scandal have been growing in volume. In the Washington Post, Marc Thiessen demanded that “Cardinal Wuerl must go”, arguing that the “Church must be cleansed” in response to the “massive crisis”.
John Daniel Davidson in the Federalist called for “public penance, resignations and a new generation of Church leaders” to restore faith in the Church after “sickening” reports of the “insidious evil of the bishops who covered up this abuse”.
The National Review reflected on former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating, who compared episcopal culture to the Mafia’s notorious code of silence, Omerta. “To resist grand jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, to deny, to obfuscate, to explain away; that is the model of a criminal organisation, not my Church” said Keating in 2003. “Of course”, wrote Michael Dougherty, “Keating was right”.
What happened?
Forty-five philosophers, theologians and writers have signed an appeal to the College of Cardinals. They asked the cardinals to advise Pope Francis to withdraw a recent change to the Catechism, in which the death penalty was described as “inadmissible”. The meaning of the term has been widely debated.
Why was it under-reported
There was little room in the news for anything except the abuse crisis. Moreover, the debate is necessarily technical: the letter writers pointed out that they did not necessarily favour the death penalty in practice, only in theory. The Church has traditionally taught that governments can, in principle, use the death penalty. The letter says that the phrase, though ambiguous, implies that perennial Church teaching is incorrect. The implication is “gravely scandalous”, they say, partly because the teaching is founded on Scripture.
What will happen next?
A papal retraction is unlikely – especially since the terms of the new Catechism definition are unclear. Cardinals may make an appeal to the Pope – but then, Francis has repeatedly declined to clarify confusing statements, for instance in Amoris Laetitia. One signatory, Michael Sirilla, a professor at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, said the new wording was “the latest in a series of ambiguously-phrased teachings which are causing a critical level of doctrinal and moral confusion among the faithful”.
The papal mass at Phoenix Park in Dublin on Sunday is a huge logistical exercise. Around 4,000 volunteers will ensure that everyone receives Communion within 20 minutes. More than 1,000 doctors, nurses and paramedics will be there to care for the 500,000 people expected to attend, who will have the benefit of 150 food and drink outlets and 2,500 loos.
The youth 2000 festival at Walsingham, which began yesterday, continues until next Monday. The biggest gathering of young Catholics in Britain, the festival features music, drama, a reconcilation and healing service and Mass.
Catholics in India will tomorrow commemorate the 10th anniversary of the massacre and atrocities against Christians in the eastern state of Odisha in 2008. Hindu extremists attacked Christians in the Kandhamal District, accusing them of the murder of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati. They killed 38 Christians and forced thousands to flee.
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