Catholic Victims of sexual abuse

There was a report in the Times of London on January 6, 2008,that the Vatican has announced that it has , “.. called all Roman Catholics to pray in perpetuity to cleanse the Church of clergy who have sexually abused minors. The report went on to say that Vatican officials stated that every parish or Roman Catholic institution is to assign a person each day to conduct prayer sessions worldwide for Catholic victims of sexual abuse by the priests. The Catholic Victims of sexual abuse themselves almost come as an after thought. Yes, they are the real victims. Yes, they were children when the incidents happened. It would seem that the Pope still hasn't figured out that these Catholic victims should now – and should have always come first.

Catholic Victims of sexual abuse

One has to wonder if this is a really bad Public Relations attempt on the part of the Vatican or whether this it is their idea of solving any further deviant sex problems within the priesthood. After years of denying, covering up, hiding documents and legal battles, the Roman Catholic Church is only now going to require prayers for the innocent Catholic Victims of sexual abuse? This is the same “Mother Church”, that until now, has fought these victims every step of the way. Now the faithful are required to pray for the monsters in priest's clothing, namely “the clergy that sexually abuse minors! The Catholic Church's answer is pray for our pedophile priests. Is any wonder that the majority of self proclaimed Roman Catholics now analyze everything coming from the Vatican? No more do they follow like the good sheep they once were. Most are questioning and skatingaround the edges, more like Cafeteria Catholics, than the Traditionalist that their parents considered themselves to be.

Catholic Victims of sexual abuse

The difficult part of this travesty for anyone, not of Catholic faith, is to understand the complete innocence of the time frame and environment that was manipulated by these men who represented God to their flock here on earth. Not only were these Catholic Victims of sexual abuse and molested by these men, but these were the men that the children were told that they should emulate in order to go to heaven. There was nowhere for them to go for help. No one would believe a child's complaint against a priest. Not during that generation – it just didn't happen. The Church, and it's Clergy, were believed to be all knowing and the protector of the flock. These children, now adults, blocked out abuse heaped on them by not just a neighbor, not a stranger but by THE MAN between them and God. This is the man that this child would go to confession to ask forgiveness for his sins. This is the man who could send him to hell. In a Church and time in which even an “impure thought” was a sin, one has to wonder how many suicides were a direct result of the actions of these pedophile priests that the Church is now telling it's flock to pray for.

The Church, whether it wants to or not, someday will have to take responsibility for this. In 1962 the Vatican released an official document, which was approved by Pope John XXIII, entitled Crimen Sollicitationis, which called for secrecy in handling sexual abuse cases involving priests and the Sacrament of Confession. A priest would go to confession, do his penance and be protected by the impenetrable walls of unquestionable morality and financial security of The Church. They knew that hiding files and moving these people did not solve the problem. They knew that sending them on a “Religious Retreat” would not fix anything. For a Catholic victim to win his day in court only soothes his self esteem that was battered so long ago. Paying out the court settlement is only the beginning of mending a broken spirit. The Church has never admitted shame, responsibility or asked for forgiveness from the Catholic victims which would be the first step in repentance. It is not about the money, it was always about the betrayal but the only way you can get attention of big business is with money so how much money does it take to get the attention of the Catholic Church? Obviously the Church hasn't learned much if they think the problem will be solved by praying for the pedophile priests.

One must ask about the Catholic Victims of sexual abuse yet to be discovered. Has the Church done anything to screen out potential problems in this area? Are they doing any psychological testing? Have they done anything to get rid of priests with known records or are they still just sending them on “retreats” and moving them from place to place? Has anything really changed or is this latest mandate for prayer for the pedophiles the Church's solution to the problem? When speaking about the number of clergy involved in sexual abuse, Cardinal Claudio Hummes said, in an interview published in the Vatican's daily L'Osservatore Romano, “Not even 1 percent is involved with problems of moral and sexual conduct.” However after all the cover-ups why would we believe him? Since the Church has made no effort to find out exactly how many deviant Priests there are, much less how many victims are left forever scarred and tormented by the Church's lack of action, it would be interesting to explore the Cardinal's data for his statement. Certainly the Catholic Victims of sexual abuse give us every reason not to believe him.