Landmark Pastoral Letter Sparks Mixed Reactions: A Report from Ireland

Landmark Pastoral Letter Sparks Mixed Reactions | Michael Kelly | Analysis for Catholic World Report

Irish Catholics receive Pope Benedict’s letter with gratitude and trepidation.

The response to Pope Benedict XVI’s pastoral letter to Ireland’s Catholics on the subject of child abuse has been somewhat predictable.

The Catholic hierarchy, as represented by Cardinal Seán Brady and Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, hailed the letter as an important contribution aiding the renewal of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The response from victims has been mixed. The group One in Four, which represents some of the people abused by Irish priests, responded to the letter with a “mixture of dismay and disappointment.”

Maeve Lewis, the group’s executive director, said she was deeply disappointed with the letter “for passing up a glorious opportunity to address the core issue in the clerical sexual abuse scandal: the deliberate policy of the Catholic Church at the highest levels to protect sex offenders.”

“While we welcome the pope’s direction that the church leadership cooperate with the civil authorities in relation to sexual abuse…we feel the letter falls far short of addressing the concerns of the victims,” she said.
However, Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA), an umbrella organization representing many of those who were abused in Church-run industrial schools, welcomed the letter.

In a statement, the group—which is currently engaged in a consultation process with the Irish Bishops’ Conference—said the pastoral letter represented a long-overdue apology from the Pope and the Vatican.

“Victims desperately need closure for what happened to them. We are fed up being victims and don’t want to remain victims,” said SOCA co-ordinator John Kelly.

“This letter is a possible step to closure and we owe it to ourselves to study it and to give it a measured response. We are heartened by the Pontiff’s open acceptance that the abusive behavior of priests and religious were criminal acts,” he said.

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Comments

[Ed Peters]

Good essay. This line caught my eye, though: "Statistically, at least, the outlook for the Church in Ireland is good. A recent survey found that 47 percent of Irish people attend Mass weekly."

47% Mass attendance is "good"? Less terrible than, say, Italy's weekly attendance rate, but hardly "good", eh?

[Thomas]

One inclined to waggishness might say that always and everywhere 100% of Catholics attend Mass, because if you ain't going to Mass you ain't a Catholic.

[Ed Peters]

But, it's not waggishnesss. It's just dumb. This penchant defining out of the Church Catholics who don't act like Cahtolics just avoids the problem of, well, Catholics who don't act as Catholics.

[Rich Leonardi]

47% is higher than anywhere in the Western world, save perhaps Poland.

[Ed Peters]

If RL is right (and for all i know, he is) we are deep deep deep trouble. on several fronts. not news, that.

[Manuel G. Daugherty Razetto]

Envy said Francis Bacon(1561-1626), is like: "A man that hath no virtue in himself ever envieth virtue in others; and who so is out of hope to attain to another's virtue will seek to come at even hand by depressing another's fortune"
One is reasonably tempted to deduce today's attacks against BXVI, the Church and consequently Christianity, as the fruit of envy. And it is an envy that has no end.

If we accept that the main reason that gives uniqueness to Benedict XVI's whole and varied governing is an always present conception that he feels responsible to God for all those entrusted to him as the successor of Peter, then we understand his Pastoral Letter to the Irish Bishops correctly.

A cardinal point of the P.L., of which little will be said by the attackers, is the detail of Pastoral Visits which demonstrates how serious, honest and wise BXVI is about the Irish Catholic Church.