Church Must Repent for Clergy Abuse, Holocaust Era Role
Los Angeles, California --
Cardinal Roger Mahony marked the start of Lent Wednesday by calling for the Catholic Church itself to do penance, in part for the abuse of children by clergy and for not speaking out 'forcefully enough' against Nazi atrocities.
Mahony, head of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, made his comments in a message to parishioners on the first day of a 40-day season during which Catholics prepare for Easter by doing penance for sins and seeking spiritual renewal through prayer, fasting and good works.
'As we begin the Lenten journey this year, it is crucial to face the fact that the Church has not always been a light in the darkness. And so, penance and renewal are called for again and again,' he wrote.
The sins the cardinal cited included sexual abuse by clergy, the 'insufficient response' of the church, and its failure to speak more forcefully against the former system of apartheid in South Africa, the massacres in Rwanda a decade ago and the extermination of millions of people -- including six million Jews -- during the Nazi Holocaust.
Tod Tamberg, the cardinal's spokesman, said in a telephone interview that he has no recollection of Mahony having previously addressed the issue of the role of the church during World War II.
Tamberg said that, as Mahony writes his own messages to Catholics in his archdiocese, he did not know for certain what prompted the cardinal to discuss the issue. But he speculated the recent 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp may have been a factor.
What the Vatican did or did not do to oppose the crimes of the Nazis during the reign of Pope Pius XII is one of the most controversial issues confronting the Roman Catholic Church in the modern era."
Read the article at NBC 4 - News dated February 9, 2005
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Cardinal Roger Mahony marked the start of Lent Wednesday by calling for the Catholic Church itself to do penance, in part for the abuse of children by clergy and for not speaking out 'forcefully enough' against Nazi atrocities.
Mahony, head of the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, made his comments in a message to parishioners on the first day of a 40-day season during which Catholics prepare for Easter by doing penance for sins and seeking spiritual renewal through prayer, fasting and good works.
'As we begin the Lenten journey this year, it is crucial to face the fact that the Church has not always been a light in the darkness. And so, penance and renewal are called for again and again,' he wrote.
The sins the cardinal cited included sexual abuse by clergy, the 'insufficient response' of the church, and its failure to speak more forcefully against the former system of apartheid in South Africa, the massacres in Rwanda a decade ago and the extermination of millions of people -- including six million Jews -- during the Nazi Holocaust.
Tod Tamberg, the cardinal's spokesman, said in a telephone interview that he has no recollection of Mahony having previously addressed the issue of the role of the church during World War II.
Tamberg said that, as Mahony writes his own messages to Catholics in his archdiocese, he did not know for certain what prompted the cardinal to discuss the issue. But he speculated the recent 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp may have been a factor.
What the Vatican did or did not do to oppose the crimes of the Nazis during the reign of Pope Pius XII is one of the most controversial issues confronting the Roman Catholic Church in the modern era."
Read the article at NBC 4 - News dated February 9, 2005
posted by God Almighty Himself at 11:13 AM
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