Friday, August 24, 2007

A Book About to Unleash A Cyclone Of Catholic Controversy In Australia

Whispers in the Loggia has the details in his post Beware of Aussies Bearing Grenades: Down Under's Winter of Candor.

Let me say I have no problem at all with us reviewing how the Church responded to the sexual abuse scandal. We need to make sure that we learn from this. However this is concerning and I wonder why this is lumped in. Loggia writes:
Beyond its core focus, the book appears likely to set off doctrinal alarm bells with the bishop’s less-than-certain explorations on whether Christ actually intended that the church take on a permanent hierarchical character mirroring that of the apostles; whether Pius XII’s 1950 ex cathedra definition of the Dogma of the Assumption was “wise and prudent,” and repeated critiques of the current understanding of the Petrine ministry and its perceived lack of reliance on collegiality, including the author's statement that “the authority of a papal document depends first and foremost on the power of the arguments it contains rather than the authority of the person signing it.

”While he says in his introduction that confronting abuse requires “looking well beyond celibacy,” though it is technically a discipline and not a defined matter of teaching, Robinson goes on to write of the Latin-rite’s required disposition for clerics that “to start with the statement that the requirement of obligatory celibacy cannot and will not be changed or even examined, as both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have done, is to lose credibility before the discussion even begins.“Some may speak all they wish of the benefits of this celibacy for the church,” he says, “but others will not stop asking, ‘How many abused children is celibacy worth?"'

UGHHHH-
I really don't understand how educated men can think the discipline of clerical celibacy causes child molestation. Guess what? I am a Catholic that though I have a civil divorce must remained celibate unless my Marriage is annulled and I get re married. I am not going out molesting children. Do non married Catholics that obey Christ want to molest children because they are not having sex? Also why would a priest because of celibacy want to have sex with children? Would they if they wished to break their vows go to a million other options. Heck., we all know there are some women that throw themselves all over priests. I have seen it. What about the priest using the World's oldest profession?

The fact is that pushing a theological and other agendas under the cover of "reform" and the molestation scandals is not helping anything. As a Convert, I am all too aware how this sort of things happens in the Protestant World.

GO see examples of that :
Insurance Companies Shed Light on Extent of Sex Abuse in Protestant Churches

StopBaptistPredators.org
Shining light on Baptist clergy sex abuse

I think this is a good link too at Rod Dreher's site
Me and the "Mississippi Sissy"

A book I plan to read by the way. What he is talking about in the book happens all the time with married clergy. Celibacy is not the problem

No comments: