(no subject)

I read in today's newspaper that, in a recorded message, the Pope told a crowd of 75,000 in Ireland that the causes of the sex-abuse scandal are a "mystery". As if I needed more evidence that the leadership of the Church is completely out of touch with reality! I mean, really, if they can't figure out how this happened, then they simply have not been paying attention. I don't think that there is any secret about the causes...it basically comes down to an abuse of power. Generations of Catholics were taught to respect the authority of priests, and when the priests abused this authority, they found they could get away with it, because their superiors were (at least) afraid of embarrassing the Church. These crimes, like most sex crimes, are not so much about the sex, as they are about the power. This is NOT news...Fr. Andrew Greeley, who is not just an author, but also a highly qualified sociologist, wrote about this in his Chicago Sun Times column back in November 2007. Too bad he and everyone else who has studied this have been utterly ignored by the powers-that-be within the Church. The bishops (up to and including the Pope) are much more comfortable trying to find causes external to the Church...they point to cultural changes that have made sex less taboo, or to supposedly declining moral standards in society. Anything to keep from admitting that the Church itself is to blame for creating the environment that enabled these predators to abuse their victims and then these men afterwards. The Pope, in his address, bemoans the loss of credibility by the Church, but clearly doesn't understand that the very failure to appreciate how the Church created and propagated the abuse is what is causing the people to question the leadership of the Church. The only way for the Pope and the bishops to regain any credibility is by facing up to their own culpability and changing the institutional structures that fostered the predatory environment for so long. Until that happens (and I don't see any signs that it is likely to happen anytime soon), leadership of the Church will continue to find it difficult to command much respect from those of us who feel that they have abused their positions and emphasized protecting their power and careers at the expense of the victims of the predators dressed as priests.