|
News Items:
|
|
Headlines
|
|
News Briefs
|
|
Stories
|
|
Movies
|
|
Word To Life
|
|
Other Items:
|
|
Client Area
|
|
Links
|
|
CNS Stylebook
|
|
Archives:
|
|
Origins
|
|
.
|
|
Did You Know...
|
The whole CNS
public Web site
headlines, briefs
stories, etc,
represents less
than one percent
of the daily news
report.
Get all the news!
If you would like
more information
about the
Catholic News
Service daily
news report,
please contact
CNS at one of
the following:
cns@
catholicnews.com
or
(202) 541-3250
|
|
.
|
|
Copyright:
|
The CNS news
report may not
be published,
broadcast,
rewritten or
otherwise
distributed,
including but not
limited to such
means as
framing or any
other digital
copying or
distribution
method, in whole
or in part without
the prior written
authority of
Catholic News
Service.
Copyright
(c) 2004
Catholic News
Service/U.S.
Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
|
|
|
|
Story of the day:
|
POPE-ADLIMINA Apr-2-2004 (840 words) xxxi
Pope expresses confidence in U.S. bishops' handling of abuse crisis
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II expressed his confidence in the U.S. bishops' handling of the sex abuse crisis, saying their willingness to address past mistakes and failures would ultimately make the church a more credible witness of the Gospel.
At the same time, the pope said the problems generated by the crisis should not silence the bishops' "prophetic" voice in a society marked by materialism and a diminished sense of the sacred.
After going through a "time of purification," the bishops need to offer a witness of hope to their country and the world, the pope said April 2 in a speech to 20 U.S. bishops.
The bishops, from Florida, North and South Carolina, Georgia and the Archdiocese for the Military Services, were the first of 14 groups who will come to Rome for their "ad limina" visits, held every five years.
The 83-year-old pontiff, who met with the bishops individually earlier in the week, pronounced only a part of his speech; the bishops were handed the full text.
The pope said he recognized the "ad limina" visits are being held at a difficult moment for the U.S. Catholic community.
"Many of you have already spoken to me of the pain caused by the sexual abuse scandal of the past two years and the urgent need for rebuilding confidence and promoting healing between bishops, priests and the laity in your country," he said.
"I am confident that the willingness which you have shown in acknowledging and addressing past mistakes and failures, while at the same time seeking to learn from them, will contribute greatly to this work of reconciliation and renewal," he said.
"This time of purification will, by God's grace, lead to 'a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate and a holier church,'" he said.
The pope said the church's history shows "there can be no effective reform without interior renewal."
In that sense, he said, the bishops need to reflect not only on their acts of governance but also on the source of their authority -- personal fidelity to the truth of the Gospel. In the end, their success will depend on how well they imitate Christ, he said.
In his talk, the pope did not specifically mention the recent landmark studies on the nature and scope of clerical sexual abuse in the United States. Those studies, commissioned by the bishops, prompted misgivings among some Vatican officials who thought they unnecessarily refocused public attention on the problem. The pope, however, voiced only support for the bishops' approach.
At the same time, he emphasized that the scandal should not overshadow the strengths of the church in the United States.
"I wish to reaffirm my confidence in the church in America, my appreciation of the deep faith of America's Catholics and my gratitude for their many contributions to American society and to the life of the church throughout the world," he said.
"Viewed with the eyes of faith, the present moment of difficulty is also a moment of hope, that hope which 'does not disappoint,' because it is rooted in the Holy Spirit, who constantly raises up new energies, callings and missions within the body of Christ," he said.
The pope said the sex abuse crisis should not lead the bishops to lower their profile in society, which needs the Gospel message.
"The exercise of this prophetic witness in contemporary American society has, as many of you have pointed out, been made increasingly difficult by the aftermath of the recent scandal and the outspoken hostility to the Gospel in certain sectors of public opinion, yet it cannot be evaded or delegated to others," he said.
Because American society shows "a disturbing loss of the sense of the transcendent" and an expansion of "a culture of the material and the ephemeral," it desperately needs the bishops' witness of hope, he said.
Faith offers the antidote to the sense of hopelessness often felt throughout the world today -- a hopelessness that inevitably spawns fear, hostility and violence, he said.
The pope said his "ad limina" talks to the remaining groups of U.S. bishops this year would examine the bishop's triple role of sanctifying, teaching and governing.
He left the bishops with a promise of his prayers and said the great gifts of the church in the United States allow them to "look with confidence to the future."
Archbishop John F. Donoghue of Atlanta said the bishops were glad they received the full written text of the pope's remarks and found them "very positive and encouraging."
"The point was not to get discouraged with what's happened in the church. The church goes through these periods of pain and suffering, and things will turn," the archbishop told Catholic News Service.
He said it was important that the pope also affirmed the need for rebuilding confidence and promoting healing in U.S. dioceses.
- - -
Editor's Note: The full text of the pope's remarks are posted on the Vatican Web site at http://www.vatican.va/news_services/bulletin/news/14610.php?index=14610&po_date=02.04.2004&lang=en.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
|
|
|
|
