On a positive note, it seems the commission's main theme seems to be what people have been wanting: transparency. So at least someone seems to be getting it. Now it remains to be seen if more transparency actually happens. I suspect that getting some of the higher Churchmen to do so will take a lot of humility because many of them, possi…
On a positive note, it seems the commission's main theme seems to be what people have been wanting: transparency. So at least someone seems to be getting it. Now it remains to be seen if more transparency actually happens. I suspect that getting some of the higher Churchmen to do so will take a lot of humility because many of them, possibly even Pope Francis himself, are going to look very bad if we find out what really took place behind the scenes in cases such as Rupnik or Principi (and many others as well).
I suspect that it will go well beyond humility and into a willingness for a lot of them to lose their jobs, and large-scale, wide-ranging dying to self.
If they reveal that a bunch of high-level men who've dedicated their lives to God have been knowingly protecting abusers, the only way to protect the Church from that will be resignations/firings. If they choose to stubbornly cling to their positions in the face of everyone knowing that, why reveal it in the first place? It will not restore trust to go from many people suspecting a bunch of Cardinals and bishops are rotten, to everyone knowing they are. To restore trust, you have to both reveal the problem AND deal with it.
And even the churchmen who aren't involved, will probably not appreciate having to do the work of their departing colleagues without additional assistance, and with a general cloud over the Church.
They ought to just take the step in front of them and leave the rest to Our Lady. Then take the next step. But I can certainly understand why they'd freeze up under the magnitude of the problem.
On a positive note, it seems the commission's main theme seems to be what people have been wanting: transparency. So at least someone seems to be getting it. Now it remains to be seen if more transparency actually happens. I suspect that getting some of the higher Churchmen to do so will take a lot of humility because many of them, possibly even Pope Francis himself, are going to look very bad if we find out what really took place behind the scenes in cases such as Rupnik or Principi (and many others as well).
I suspect that it will go well beyond humility and into a willingness for a lot of them to lose their jobs, and large-scale, wide-ranging dying to self.
If they reveal that a bunch of high-level men who've dedicated their lives to God have been knowingly protecting abusers, the only way to protect the Church from that will be resignations/firings. If they choose to stubbornly cling to their positions in the face of everyone knowing that, why reveal it in the first place? It will not restore trust to go from many people suspecting a bunch of Cardinals and bishops are rotten, to everyone knowing they are. To restore trust, you have to both reveal the problem AND deal with it.
And even the churchmen who aren't involved, will probably not appreciate having to do the work of their departing colleagues without additional assistance, and with a general cloud over the Church.
They ought to just take the step in front of them and leave the rest to Our Lady. Then take the next step. But I can certainly understand why they'd freeze up under the magnitude of the problem.