Suffer the little children

Readers speak out on sexual abuse by clergy and what the Church can do to aid the victims

Forgotten history haunts us today

PEOPLE, ORGANIZATIONS, institutions and society keep forgetting history, therefore are destined to repeat major errors. The Roman Catholic Church must have forgotten what happened in the 1300s; mainly the Reformation. That was driven largely by the abuses of the clergy selling worthless indulgences. In recent years, this has involved abuse by pedophile priests and the systematic cover-up by the church hierarchy. The lack of understanding history today is more difficult to understand than back in the 1300s since the Jesuit Order is supposedly highly educated.

What might have driven the recycling of priests through the local Paraclete Center is the continuously decreasing (number) of new men entering the religious life, as well as the ease of forgiveness of transactions. The arrogance of some of the church’s pompous hierarchy— like hypocrite Archbishop Robert Sanchez with his several young women — and their essentially granting absolution to the visiting pedophiles and possibly the Christian “turning the other cheek” philosophy rather than throwing essentially repeat criminals into prisons are major contributing factors.

There are limits to rehabilitation regardless of “cost savings.” After two “strikes,” any criminal should be removed from society, regardless (of) the current “politically correct” allowances of modern society. The judicial system needs to be much more responsive with a more rapid determination of guilt or innocence. Excuses such as the disintegration of family structure, lack of morals and continuous changing of the definition of words really have no bearing.

The present forgetfulness of history — limited here to the current abuse problem, but applies to many issues — has largely been a bounty for the legal profession. Very likely class action activity will parallel the awards against the asbestos and tobacco industries. Unlike the Reformation transforming sects of Christianity, today might be the death blow of Roman Catholicism. Hopefully, complete destruction of human morality will not occur. Otherwise, society as we know it will disappear. BRUNO MOROSIN Albuquerque

Celibacy is a driving force for abuse

IT SEEMS THE problems with abusive priests just continues to grow. We now know this problem of abusing young men — and a few women — goes back for decades. It’s not difficult to understand why it took many years for these people to speak out. You’re going to accuse a priest — “a man of God” — of doing unspeakable things to mostly young boys? The embarrassment, the shame and the probability that no one will believe you — a very tough situation.

So, how in the world could this have gone on for so many years, and supposedly very few in positions of authority knew about it? The answer is rather simple — they did know and covered it up to save the church the shame, embarrassment and consequences of the actions of so many priests.

The biggest question I have is why in the world did the church demand that priests not marry? This was not a doctrine of the church that somehow goes all the way back to its beginnings. Look at history — there were, at one time, married popes. Who the heck was it who thought, and continues to think, that this is a good idea? Simple biology should be enough to tell you that man was never intended to lead a celibate life. What in the world is “natural” about that?

The fact is that most religions do not have this insane rule. As a result, they also don’t have the same problems that plague the Catholic Church. I grew up Catholic, but I can also say that one of the great religious ministers in my lifetime was Bill Graham. He was a married man!

The church has already pretty much lost me and many others over this and other things. The solution is simple — allow priests to be married and live normal lives. If the pope continues to ignore this simple solution, they will eventually lose millions more! Wake up! DAN O’CONNOR Albuquerque

Church must provide healing justice

IT HAS OFTEN taken a cataclysmic event in the history of humanity to challenge the human community to growth and maturity. Sept. 11, 2001, is of this ilk — an event so horrific that it challenged us to how we get along with one another in this world. The current clergy sexabuse scandal and crisis unfolding once again in the Catholic Church here in the United States and elsewhere must challenge the leadership of the church to serious growth and maturity, such as the role of women and married persons in leadership positions in the church. Catholics — most especially lay Catholics — have the right to their opinions, thoughts, outrage and disgust on the past, current and ongoing scandals in the church. The laity by the Theological virtue of Baptism are, after all, equal members of the Body of Christ, the Church.

Once again, like the scandals of the Boston Archdiocese in 2002, we will hear about cover-ups. Perhaps cover-ups come from the church being a hierarchy. If one is a bishop and wishes to climb the “ecclesial corporate ladder” to be an archbishop, or if one is an archbishop and wishes to become a cardinal, then the head office of Rome cannot know of any sort of unhealthiness going on in one’s diocese.

It is time for the bishops of the church to get serious about eradicating clericalism with its power structures, which is the root of sex abuse and which Pope Francis has called the “leprosy” of the church. The church needs to get serious about providing justice and peace, and therefore a fraction of healing to the victims whose lives have been severely challenged, even devastated, by abuse. REV. VINCENT PAUL CHAVEZ Albuquerque

Teach birth control, help ‘little ones’

REGARDING THE recent epiphany that Pope Francis had regarding the atrocity of sexual abuse of children and how the “little ones have been abandoned.”

History shows that the Catholic Church, along with other churches, has committed numerous atrocities since inception. Each church continues to fail to acknowledge or correct its vile acts. Sad to say, the followers of each church seem to believe that accepting and forgiving these hypocrisies somehow guarantees them a passage through the Pearly Gates.

As horrendous as sexual abuse is, the biggest atrocity that any of the churches continues to ignore is their teachings to the millions of poor, sick and starving people of the world against the practice of birth control.

If the churches are truly interested in “taking care of the little ones” or “all of God’s creatures,” then they need to recognize that the biggest issue facing humankind and our planet is overpopulation. They all need to come together and ensure that all of the “little ones” truly have lives worth living, which involves the practice of birth control. RUTH CONNERY Albuquerque