Roman symposium on sexual abuse of minors
February 11, 2012, 11:56 am
Posted by Joseph A. Komonchak
This past week the Pontifical Gregorian University hosted a symposium on the sexual abuse of minors for bishops and the superiors of religious congregations. John Allen has followed the proceedings closely at the NCR website. The Gregorian has a whole site devoted to the conference and there, if you click on “Archive,” you can find either as documents or as videos many of the talks given and two of the liturgies celebrated.
http://thr.unigre.it/vescovi2012/en-GB/Home.aspx
This past week the Pontifical Gregorian University hosted a symposium on the sexual abuse of minors for bishops and the superiors of religious congregations. John Allen has followed the proceedings closely at the NCR website. The Gregorian has a whole site devoted to the conference and there, if you click on “Archive,” you can find, either as documents or as videos, many of the talks given and two of the liturgies celebrated.
There were a few comments elsewhere, including mine, on this.
Lots of good things were said, though my perception is that cardinal Levada(like a good deputy) was trying to insulate Benmedict from any harsh critique.
What happens on the ground subsequently is the issue now that we promise accountability, cooperation with civil authorities, listening to victims, etc.
And not only in the Us in Philly, KC, Milwaukee, but Poland, Phillipines, and etc.(possible italy itself???)
The link doesn’t work for me.
I looked at Allen’s articles (particularly looking for mentions of Cardinal Law), but, as expected, didn’t see anything of note. Optimistically, one might hope that bishops in attendance will benefit from that conference while drafting their guidelines, but I am not optimistic. If only the title had been “Toward Justice, Healing and Renewal” instead of “Toward Healing and Renewal”.
I think I’ve fixed the link.
Yes, it works now.Thanks!
Claire, I’m glad they left off “justice”. There’s far too much emphasis on punishment and retribution in the world today.
I love the site design. Beautiful simplicity. Videos, archives. Very public. Very nice.
Dumortier’s signature is something to behold :o)
David, I agree in general. The number of incarcerated people in the US is incredible. But I don’t agree for some particular subsets of citizens. Some people seem to be protected, as if above the law. Politicians, in France, the very rich, in the US, bishops, in the Catholic church.
I note that soldiers are often less eager than random people to follow a gut reaction and “just go to war”, perhaps because they know the toll it takes. I conjecture that countries with a draft tend to be less belligerent, perhaps because people know that their son or they themselves might personally get hurt. Perhaps overall there would be less emphasis on punishment and retribution if it fell more equally on everyone. Asking for more justice against failing politicians or bishops would then be an indirect route to have less emphasis on punishment overall!
David, I think you need a far more nunaced view of”justice” and the issue of rights vs. public safety, and the partuicular issue of violent crime and how to deal with it.
I;m sorry bu tit’s so easy to say there”s “too much emphasis on punsihment and retribution.”
Therea re broad cries in the CJ community about overincarceration for nonviolent offenses!
On another tac, perhaps the infamous Cardinal Egan interview(excoriated by SMW at NCR) should be boted in this thread.
Though he beileves Egan is the exception, I’m hihghly sceptical; OMO the mindset of many hierarchs may match his defensiveness.
How much impact that wil ahve on what comesfrom the Roman Conference should be viewd carefully.
One more note:
The culture of silence (described as”omerta”) was also scored at the Rome meeting.
But only on these matters?
Or are all the leaks coming out of Rome on mismanagement, inrernal friction, etc. to be swept away?
The question of how serious the Roman confernece was wil be seen not only in other places but at the heart of the Vatican as well.
I suspect that if this symposium had included all those other things, the criticism would be that it is not talking sex-abuse seriously because it’s lumped in with all those other things. And I don’t believe anyone at the conference suggested sweeping them away.
Bob N. ==
I was amazed that the word “omerta” was used, associated with the Mafia as it is. That more than anything I’ve read indicates to me that there are cracks starting to form in the Curial rock. At least I hope so. I certainly have enormous respect for Msgr. Scicluna.
Some day we ought to have a thread on when we are morally obliged to speak out.
Also, see today’s NYT editproal on the Cardinal Egan issue.
The archives are no longer available. Now the only thing I saw was an announcement of an upcoming book.