Pope attributes Irish sex abuse scandal to "growing secularization"

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

This is so ass-backward it staggers the mind.


Religion has excellent PR so we tend to accept claims that, for instance, the christian church was the driving force in abolition.

Yes, many Churches were involved in abolition but when you step back and look at the sweep of history you will notice that Christianity had about 1600 years of free reign to do something about slavery and did not. (Much like Republicans with healthcare reform... the church is quick to point fingers but back when they ran the whole show they didn't do anything.)

It was only post-Enlightenment, when educated people started taking religion less seriously, that the urge to abolish slavery arose, and in short order. The social/intellectual mood to abolish slavery was a product of secularization--including the effect of growing secularization on the church itself. Then, when that stance became widespread in decent and enlightened circles a lot of churches came on board and, due to their powers of moral suasion and organization, played a role in abolition.

Sexual abuse of the helpless by church officials has existed as long as there has been a church. (That's not a particular knock on churches... sexual predation has always been common wherever people have total power over others. Where clergy have authorty and power there is more potential for abuse of power.)

The thing that arose from "rising secularization" was not sexual predation, it was objecting to sexual predation.

For heaven's sake... this is stuff everybody knows if only they will stop to think. The middle ages were distinctly non-secular... like over-the-top non-secular. Would any educated person care to cite the middle ages as an era of morality and decency? Would any educated person fail to note that all our modern ethical sensibilities gained traction from the Enlightenment?

There is an effect that rising social awareness creates the illusion of rising pathology. Rape and child abuse are less common in the west than they used to be. The difference is that we no longer accept them. We note them today as exceptional occurrences.

(Look to things like the Magdalene Laundry to see how upright the Irish church was back before the internet and gay adoption ruined everyone's morals.)

Secularization is the reason this stuff won't fly anymore.

Secularization offered the ethical framework within which the church must now operate.

[hobbit709]

1. I guess the priests were secularized then?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. Gotta be

[malaise]

2. Yes what the planet needs is good old feudalism

where no one can challenge the pope's church. Fuck all child abusers.

[democracy1st]

3. more bs from the boys club I'll say a prayer for them!

[Xipe Totec]

4. Throwing the Irish church under the Popemobile nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. It seems to be the Second Vatican Council he's blaming

From his letter:

In recent decades, however, the Church in your country has had to confront new and serious challenges to the faith arising from the rapid transformation and secularization of Irish society. Fast-paced social change has occurred, often adversely affecting people’s traditional adherence to Catholic teaching and values. All too often, the sacramental and devotional practices that sustain faith and enable it to grow, such as frequent confession, daily prayer and annual retreats, were neglected. Significant too was the tendency during this period, also on the part of priests and religious, to adopt ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel. The programme of renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council was sometimes misinterpreted and indeed, in the light of the profound social changes that were taking place, it was far from easy to know how best to implement it. In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations. It is in this overall context that we must try to understand the disturbing problem of child sexual abuse, which has contributed in no small measure to the weakening of faith and the loss of respect for the Church and her teachings.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/letters/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_let_20100319_church-ireland_en.html

and, indirectly through Vatican II, 'secularization'. But that must be worrying for liberal Catholics - Ratzinger seems to be saying "see, the liberal Catholics in the 60s told us to be more tolerant, so we tolerated paedophilia. Now we better tone down the tolerance". This looks like an attempt to take the Roman Catholic church further right, to me.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

8. Interesting. Thanks for the info.

[RainDog]

7. LOL! reality again intrudes upon the fucked up world view of the pope

the truth of the matter is that the CHURCH is responsible for people turning away from it.

....beyond the lies, the misogyny, the hatred of homosexuals...

THE CHURCH'S REFUSAL TO PROSECUTE PEDOPHILES is the reason they're down to one seminary in Ireland.

People are not as stupid as the pope wishes.