Pope Benedict Delivers Pastoral Letter to Ireland
RedTracker| Pope Benedict has delivered his pastoral letter to Ireland. Couched in passionate language, the letter offered sympathy and compassion to the people of Ireland but no penalties for clergy and the Catholic hierarchy involved in the scandal.
The Pope said punishment would come from God but he did reference tribunals that would further investigate the sex abuse cases.
Speaking on Saturday just before the publication of the letter, Maeve Lewis, an executive director of One In Four, a support group in Dublin for victims of sexual abuse, said that the Vatican had tried to suggest that clerical abuse was an Irish problem. “The events of the last three weeks in Germany and Netherlands suggest otherwise,” she said. via NYTimes
Anne
Victims react to papal letter via BBC News
After papal rebuke, Ireland takes stunned stock of battered church, economy, and nation The Christian Science Monitor
many people are questioning whether the church can regain its moral authority in the wake of the revelations.
Reader Comments