The news about the second report of child abuse in Ireland once can reminded us on the sins of our church and how difficult it is for an institution, to come to terms with its own past. Seeing the Archbishop of Dublin sitting there during a press conference and apologizing in his capacity as a bishop, but also as a human being, showed how stressful it is to deal with a now uncovered truth, nobody will really be able to repair the damage done. It teaches us as church a lesson and encourages us to be humble in all our duties to guide other people. It shows how deep even people who thought they were the guardians of the truth and the morals can fail in a way, only God can heal. Give God that we as a church learn out of it, but in a way that makes us better. In the last years the church was tempted to put the guilt on some rotten apple, then it tried to connect homosexuality and pedophilia – at the end it showed that we as an institution are still not able simply to stand before God and men and acknowledge first and foremost our failure as people of God. Acknowledgement without any justification, just acknowledgement and deep shame should be first. And a clear understanding, that only honest reflection can lead the way forward to learn out of such a past. Such humbleness does not take away anything from the good things, the church has done also in the past, but it fits an organisation, calling itself the people of God.
Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized, Catholic, church, Church Matters, ireland, pedophilia
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