"From today’s crisis, a Church will emerge tomorrow that will have lost a great deal. She will be small and, to a large extent, will have to start from the beginning. She will no longer be able to fill many of the buildings created in her period of great splendor. Because of the smaller number of her followers, she will lose many of her privileges in society. Contrary to what has happened until now, she will present herself much more as a community of volunteers... As a small community, she will demand much more from the initiative of each of her members and she will certainly also acknowledge new forms of ministry and will raise up to the priesthood proven Christians who have other jobs... There will be an interiorized Church, which neither takes advantage of its political mandate nor flirts with the left or the right. This will be achieved with effort because the process of crystallization and clarification will demand great exertion. It will make her poor and a Church of the little people... All this will require time. The process will be slow and painful."...+Joseph Ratzinger, 1969 lecture on Bavarian radio.
"The cases of pedophilia in the Church are, for all Catholics, a source of profound grief and great sorrow. From members of the Church hierarchy were, in some cases, serious deficiencies and failures, and we welcome the Pope’s wish to shed light on these cases.
With the bishops, and as members of the Church, lay Catholics bear the brunt of the crimes of certain priests and failures of their superiors; they fall firmly, as Christ taught, on the side of those who suffer most from these crimes, the victims, while praying for the culprits.
As for us, we hope with all our hearts that the whole truth comes out and all in the Catholic Church that could enable these offenses brought to Christ should be discussed calmly and amicably amongst all men and women of good will.
At the same time, we regret the runaway and provocative press that accompany these cases. Beyond the legitimate & democratic right to information, we can only note with sadness, as Christians but also as citizens, that many media in our country (and in the West in general) treat these cases with bias, ignorance, or delight. Shourtcuts in generalizations, the portrait of the Church which is currently done in the press does not match the experiences of Catholic Christians.
While reiterating our horror at the crime of pedophile priests and our solidarity with the victims, we urge the media to an ethic of responsibility that would undertake a more ethical treatment of these cases. The effects of runaway media are, by far, reserved to the Church, but we are tired of and battered by this thrashing. We think of so many priests who courageously, and sometimes in solitude, bear the message of Christ.
We are with them.
We welcome the letter from the bishops of France to Pope Benedict XVI, and wish to see the Catholic Church, with serenity and responsibility, through this painful ordeal."
e
And yet, here in Canada, even a so-called Catholic journalist who rather than confine his column to his expertise in art and architecture, writes instead, this filth below. When the Catholic Register determines by its Editorial right to decline its publication, he still finds a waiting and eager secular press. He can say that he regrets it all he wants, but he still managed to publish this nice little gem. Rather than just write the truth; his intellect has failed him as he fell for the lies of the discredited Hell's Journal of New York as he calls for Pope Benedict XVI to resign and of course his continuous referral to this and other bloggers as "right wing Catholics" in his most derogatory and snobbish manner;
e
He has no excuse for this putrid diatribe and he owes everyone at his parish an apology!
e
"I was hurt, offended, angered – but mostly embarrassed by my gullibility. Because I felt I had been seduced by Benedict's eloquence, his brilliant expositions of Christian belief in sermons and writings, and even by his fascinating quirks and eccentricities, I decided to revenge myself on him in the public forum most readily available to me: the pages of The Catholic Register, the Toronto archdiocesan weekly for which I have been writing regularly on Christianity and culture since 2002. In the column I supplied last Sunday, I denounced the Pope for incompetence and lack of vigour in pursuing sex offenders, and I suggested that he should consider resigning from his office."
d
Yes, John, I disgust "quite easily."
4 comments:
Your attack on him is unfair and offensive. You are attacking him for something that he acknowledges was a mistake. Cool off.
Dear Anonymous,
How is my attack unfair?
He has offended many Catholics, and prominent ones too, as I have emails from them, by what he has written.
It was a mistake, but until he published it in the Canadian equivalent of Hells' Bible, or is that The Toronto Star, nobody knew.
No, not one of us knew.
The Editor of the Catholic Register did not publicize that he spiked Mays' column. It was only known by Mays and the Editor.
He simply should not have written it.
John Bentley Mays needs to be held accountable as a Catholic in the public square for what he has written.
Truly, if he felt bad and was indeed relieved after the Editor called him, then he should have left it at that and not used his pulpit in the Globe and Mail to attack the Holy Father.
No, this is the time for all Catholics to stand up for the truth and what is right.
The homosexuals pederasts and pedophiles whether priests, bishops or cardinals and those who covered them up need to be outed and removed from their duties and put before the civil and canonical courts as necessary, but the vicious attack, particularly by Catholics in the public square must be challenged.
On this, I will not be silent!
Mays also said:
"By Tuesday, as well, credible challenges to the accuracy and thoroughness of The New York Times's original report, especially as this reporting touched on Benedict's alleged involvement in sex-crime cover-ups, were coming to light in the press and on the Internet."
And:
"Had my Register column been rushed into print, I would now be guilty, not only of the hectoring bad temper that disgraces so much journalism these days, but also of willful ignorance of the factual subtleties of this affair."
So Mays Globe article did show some moderation in tone and a willingness to reconsider his position in the light of additional information. He deserves some credit for that doesn't he?
John Vicente
Why go public with a mistake? Would a reputable scientist publish a text to then go on to point out its mistakes? I think not. Well done, Vox.
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