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From George Patsourakos’ website Theology and Society. George is a commentator and contributor to the AOI Observer. I have only one quibble with this otherwise strong editorial. The problem of pedophilia (a misnomer, it is really pedastery) was not a “…result of the Catholic Church’s policy of secrecy in which bishops transferred pedophile priests to different communities,” but caused by the Catholic Church ordaining practicing homosexuals to the priesthood.
Pope Benedict XVI this week in his end-of-the-year speech to Vatican cardinals and bishops said revelations of child abuse by Catholic priests in 2010 reached “an unimaginable dimension” that required the church to accept the “humiliation” as a call for renewal.
At the same time, the pope said that society must share the blame for this phenomenon, because we are living in a society in which the mistreatment of children is “common.”
Blaming a secular society in which mistreatment of children is common, can only be considered as an excuse — or at least a softening — by the pope for the abusive priests’ inappropriate behavior. The fact is that there should be no sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, regardless of how society treats children.
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