[UPDATE: Zenit has published an excellent, fair and balanced story on the Holy See’s press release. The story even stresses the paragraph that I had quoted below. You can read the Zenit story by clicking here. What’s curious is that in searching Zenit’s archives, I find no coverage of Fr. Sada’s apology earlier this year. Nor can I find any mention of the Legion’s recent, widely-distributed news release concerning their letter to Maciel’s son. Thus I’m pleasantly surprised by the good coverage Zenit gave to the Holy See’s press statement on this topic.]
Original entry:
There was no direct mention of the Legion of Christ in yesterday’s press statement by the Holy See “concerning cases of the sexual abuse of minors in ecclesiastical institutions.” However, in addressing the scandal in other parts of Europe – namely, according to the statement, “the German Jesuit Province (the first to be involved, through the case of the Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin), the German Episcopal Conference, the Austrian Episcopal Conference and the Netherlands Episcopal Conference – the Holy See Press Office offers us insights into Pope Benedict’s thinking on the issue:
The main ecclesiastical institutions concerned […] have faced the emergence of problem with timely and decisive action. They have demonstrated their desire for transparency and, in a certain sense, accelerated the emergence of the problem by inviting victims to speak out, even when the cases involved date from many years ago. By doing so they have approached the matter ‘on the right foot’, because the correct starting point is recognition of what happened and concern for the victims and the consequences of the acts committed against them.
To read the Holy See’s press statement, please click here.
Ahh..those beautiful words -transparency.
LCs in the rank and file now are all pretty much accepting,from what I have seen, the truths of all the sex abuse of MM. When I asked why they were not told earlier- they get this excuse: Because it would have been sinful to reveal the sins of another. (?!) They were content to simply let the Holy See’s orignal investigation close the past in a shroud of ‘discretion.’ (Clearly this was an injustice to original accusers, let alone withholding vital information for correcting any subsequent ‘cloning’ cases of abuse still in need of remedy).
Would the LCs vows up to this date of admission, be considered valid? Is the deceit throughout the length of their history grave enough that one can consider them all null? Hence before God any LC is free to walk off the reservation…
(ie. that is the difference between an invalid vow and one that is dispensed).
Isn’t it strange how quickly Fr. Skertchly went public about Raul’s extortion attempt after the family gave their interview? I guess what they really mean is that it’s sinful to disclose the sins of a Legionary.