All this cannot be true

All this cannot be true

our site Editor-in-Chief Ingo Bruggenjurgen © DR

The most comprehensive report to date on sexual abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church is not only shocking the state of Pennsylvania. Editor-in-chief Ingo Bruggenjurgen demands: The mendacity in the entire area of church and sexuality must stop.

The topic of abuse does not let go of the church. In 884 pages, the report of a grand jury in Pennsylvania documents facts from church records and testimony that paint a harrowing picture. According to the report, over the past seven decades, more than 1.000 mostly male children and adolescents were sexually abused by more than 300 Catholic priests and church employees. Experts suspect that the number of unreported cases is even higher. As early as 2002, the daily newspaper "The Boston Globe" published its report on widespread clerical abuse in the archdiocese of the same name. The dark wave of ecclesiastical crime and failure has since swept country after country. From Ireland via Germany and Poland to Australia and Chile.

It is not only the many reports of the victims, who often suffer for the rest of their lives because of what priests, religious and in individual cases also bishops have done to them, that shock and concern me. I register without catching that the covering up of the acts and the protecting of the perpetrators were at that time up to the highest church circles at the order of the day. But it makes me really angry when until today attempts are made to cover up or to hide behind statutes of limitations. That there are still clergymen who believe that it is best for the church not to make a big fuss about these "regrettable individual cases". The redacted names and passages in the report now published in Pennsylvania do not strengthen my confidence. It is also deeply sad that media, prosecutors and independent investigative commissions bring far more church darkies and their appalling crimes to the light of day than the church's own, internal investigations.

Yes, there is good church sexual education and prevention work, especially in Germany. There are many wonderful clergy who do excellent work in pastoral children's and youth work every day anew. The vast majority of Catholic leaders have now also realized that only an absolute zero-tolerance policy can help regain lost credibility. But the necessary credibility also includes imposing more clarity and truth in the whole area of church and sexuality. Examples? There are homosexual priests. Probably even more than in some other professions. But every individual who is encouraged to mendaciously deny his homosexuality becomes a risk case for the church's credibility. There are heterosexual priests who cannot cope with celibate lifestyle. Probably no more or less than married couples who are unfaithful to their partner. But if these priests live out their sexuality in secret, the church also has a credibility problem because of them.

Clearly, we must not compare apples and oranges here: Celibate priests and religious do not automatically defile children and adolescents, although this is repeatedly reported in public. But even 50 years after the publication of Humanae Vitae the subject of the church and sexuality is still an unresolved taboo, conflict and problem. Perhaps it helps to realize that precisely the life given by God and the sexuality connected with it should not be regulated first in laws and norms, but should be lived in responsibility and truth.

Like this post? Please share to your friends:
Christina Cherry
Leave a Reply

;-) :| :x :twisted: :smile: :shock: :sad: :roll: :razz: :oops: :o :mrgreen: :lol: :idea: :grin: :evil: :cry: :cool: :arrow: :???: :?: :!: