A defiant Pope Benedict XVI indicated yesterday that he would not be intimidated by the clerical sex abuse crisis now engulfing the Church and threatening to undermine his authority.
Speaking during Palm Sunday Mass, he said that faith in Christ “helps lead us towards courage which does not allow us to be intimidated by the chatter of dominant opinions”.
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Father Lombardi said: “The recent media attacks have without doubt caused damage. But the authority of the Pope and the commitment of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith against sex abuse of minors will come out of this not weakened but strengthened.”
The Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, defended the Pope, saying that he was at the forefront of efforts to tackle the problem of clerical sex abuse. The archbishop told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One: “The Pope will not resign. Frankly there is no strong reason for him to do so. In fact, it is the other way around. He is the one above all else in Rome that has tackled this thing head on.” (My emphasis)
The RCC tries the "putting facts on the ground" strategy. Just keep saying the words, and they will come to be true. The magic words will not work this time around. The pope and his close advisors are in denial about the damage to their moral authority, which is in shreds at the present time. New revelations of older abuse will probably continue to come to light. The pope's problems are not behind him, and he and his advisors will need to come out of denial if the church is to make a new beginning and the powers in the church restore to themselves any sort of credibility.
H/T to Mark Harris at Preludium for the link to the article in the Times.