it could be argued that the doctrine of separation of church and state as dreamed up by the courts over the past 100 years or so, as opposed to the way it is written in the US Constitution, has done damage to the Catholic Church and society in ways we didn’t expect. Perhaps the wall of separation set up by government to “protect” society from influence of churches has allowed certain problems to fester in the churches that have now begun to explode in our faces.
There were hundreds of protesters holding “PAZ” signs and FoxNews commentators were kinda clueless about the whole thing.
Now this story on an Australian newspaper linked also on drudge
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8964146^1702,00.html
There’s the reason why the signs didn’t say: Justicia (or whatever the proper Spanish is).
There’s an impending election in Spain, it’s Aznar versus the Socialists (self-proclaimed). We’ll see which way the Spanish want to go. Do they want to capitualte to the Muslims (like the american left) or do they want eliminate the threat (like the American right)?
Sometime Peace and Justice temporarily exclude each other. In that case, I’ll take Justice.
Sexual abuse in families is a non sequitur. It has nothing to do with the argument.
And I’m not talking about the causes of sexual abuse. I’m talking about repeat offenders, who caught once, should never have been able to abuse again while wearing the collar. Bishops aided and abetted their continuing depradations.
The fact is that many law enforcement officials participated in the cover up of sex abuse in the Church, some by not holding bishops accountable for their negligence. And if one bishop had gone to jail for it, the scope of the Scandal would have been much smaller.
Al,
That’s a bit disingenuous. The negligence I’m talking about is the negligence of assigning known sexual predators to situations in which they could continue their abuse, allegedly with disregard for the future victims. Ordination of homosexuals is something for the Church to deail with; criminal negligence is something for the state to deal with.
Re-read the first sentence of Galenbach’s article: If the bishops dont’ manage this, the government will.
Also this applies: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” It is the state’s job to protect citizens and prosecute criminals. Sexual abuse is a crime. Harboring criminals is a crime. Criminal negligence is a crime. Want to put these guys in a monastery? Fine, do it after they get out of Attica.
Dealing with homosexuality in the priesthood is for the bishops to do, but if they don’t do it and don’t hold each other accountable, and even make it easier for homosexual abusers to continue their activites, then the hierarchy is corrupt and an outside group may be just the tool of the Holy Spirit that will reform it.
Diogenes makes the same point.
If a priest is a serial killer, should he go to jail? If a bishop knows his priest is a homicidal maniac4 22:51:10 -0600
Americans cannot treat this tragedy as some far-off event that distracts only a moment from our sitcoms and sports. We need to give this act of evil the attention it deserves and we have to recommit ourselves to the cause of freedom and liberty against the forces of fear and intimidation. Whether those who did this were Basque terrorists or al Quaeda terrorists only matters insofar as we need to know where to send the Special Forces. We are in a War against Terror, wherever it is found, whether it is in Afghanistan, Iraq, or now Spain, and we are committed to its end.
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