Blame On The Secular

If Irish society was more like it used to be, there'd be no clerical sex abuse scandal. Or that's what His Holiness in Rome has said.

He's sent a letter of apology to Ireland, to "propose a path of healing, renewal and reparation."

No magic bullet promised in the letter, of course. All can agree that healing will take a good long time. Getting the behemoth bureaucracy to move won't be a swift undertaking either. Consider how long it took the Holy See to admit that Galileo had it right after all.

But that isn't what really matters to Pope Benedict. It's this rapid secularization that's caused all the trouble.

"Fast-paced social change has occurred, often adversely affecting people’s traditional adherence to Catholic teaching and values" he says. Translation? When it was "pay, pray and obey", everyone was happy. There wasn't all this fuss about bishops resigning in disgrace and people refusing to allow their children to serve at the altar out of fear of what might happen in the sacristy.

Going to confession and daily mass and annual retreats kept the priests on their toes and kept them from straying from the Gospel. Once the parishioners slacked off, so too did the priests. When you get right down to it, the Second Vatican Council is at the core of the entire scandal.

Nice in theory, but anyone who's read about the goings-on Ireland's Magdalen laundries and industrial schools before anyone even thought about a Second Vatican Council would realize how bizarre and disconnected the Pope is from reality.

If not for secularization, the victims of the abuse that went on for decades would never have found the support and courage to come forward. The changes wrought by the Second Vatican Council had nothing whatsoever to do with bishops being mistaken in their interpretations of Canon Law. The fact that the clergy stonewalled the authorities and shifted pedophiles from parish to parish has nothing to do with Masses being said in languages other than Latin.

While the Pope comes down on the perps, he fails to slap down the higher-ups. The bishops who hid the pedophiles don't have to worry about facing God, to read the Papal letter to the Catholics of Ireland. It's as if they didn't do a thing wrong.

St. Peter didn't live in a fine house, with lovely red shoes to cover his feet. Perhaps the Church needs to emulate Christ and His Disciples a bit more closely, and keep in mind that while they are the Princes of the Church, they are royalty in a kingdom that's not of this earth.