“The Vatican has been included for the first time in an Amnesty International report examining human rights. They found “increasing evidence of widespread child sexual abuse committed by clergy…and the enduring failures of the Catholic Church to address these crimes.”
“Amnesty Names Vatican Over Human Rights Abuses,” by Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, IrishTimes.com, May 13,2011
The credible evidence mounts and,now, acknowledgement by an independent, international organization identifying
the failures of the church gives me hope that even though they can lie to us Catholics they can not run too far from reality.
Can one suppose that this development will pierce the “shell of denial” , or perhaps a better simile would be “bubble of denial” among the pew sitting, pay-pray-obey crowd in Catholic Churches each Sunday throughout the country?
If I were still a Catholic I would be ashamed Big Time!
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1677898##
just an abstract – can’t find the full article for public view.Was looking at this at my kids’ college along with a few other like articles, but none have public access.
The Roman Catholic Church may be forever changed by this scandal. The fact that many of its members are be faithful, or many are horrified may have nothing to do with the outcome. The crimes of the Church may be discovered to be so great that there will be no coming back. I have no sympathy for the hierarchy, I want to see them pay. However, for those of us who may have to start all over, where and how will we begin. Will the Faithful be up for the task of taking up the Cross and following Jesus…
Elizabeth,
The Roman Catholic Church will definitely be forever changed by this scandal. The proof will be on the Internet and will be available on every teenager’s Iphone.
If you don’t think the next few generations of teenagers are going to give into peer pressure by their friends to ignore or leave the Catholic church, I say you’re crazy.
The One, True, Holy, and Apostolic Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is indicted for child endangerment and mentioned in the same article as China and Libya as a violator of human rights. Can you believe it?
It’s enough to make some people leave the church.