Catholic Church still in disarray
It took a very long time for the Catholic Church to address their pedophile priest problems in America. In fact, had it not been for a huge number of aggressive lawyers across the country finding victims from past decades, the Catholic Church hierarchy would have been probably able to keep a lid on this scandal for who knows how many more years. But the media shined a bright light on the church and gave the many lawsuits filed on behalf of pedophile victims a great deal of publicity and over time, reality sat in and multi-million dollar settlements were reached in many dioceses in America. The total number is most likely to exceed a billion dollars.
For purposes of full disclosure, we here at Common Sense Authors are not Catholics and it is not our intent to criticize the church as such or even the events taking place over so many years. We understand also that it must have been very difficult for the church leadership to come to grips with the problem and as we all know, a Cardinal and several Bishops were asked to resign from their posts as a result of decisions made by them in prior times. The scandal reached the Vatican and while we do not have first-hand knowledge, must have been discussed in Rome in great detail and with great pain to the Catholic Church worldwide.
Common sense would expect that the Church also made some decisions for how to deal with such ‘problems’ in the future. No more ignoring such incidents by transferring pedophile priests to other parishes, instead, the Church would be served well to take swift action when problems occur. Part of the Catholic Church’s agenda has to be the re-establishment of reputation and trust among the faithful. They are asking them now to help defray the costs of the settlements by enlarging their weekly or monthly donations. In return, the Church has to commit to its flock that they will never allow any scandalous behavior to re-occur without dealing with it.
Now then, why is it that the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Chicago tolerates Rev. Michael Pfleger, the pastor at St. Sabina invited the Rev. Jeremiah Wright jr. (Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s longtime friend, mentor and spiritual advisor) to Saint Sabina’s African American Speaking Series (where Dr. Maya Angelou was the guest speaker)? Rev. Michael Pfleger has stated that “Jeremiah Wright is a friend, mentor and hero of mine and he is someone for whom I have great respect.” He has also said “Jeremiah Wright is one of the great biblical scholars of our country and the best of preachers in the prophetic tradition.” Furthermore, the Rev. Pfleger has made similar statements about Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam and praised him as a great theologian and leader. Never mind that Farrakhan is openly Anti-Semitic.
In fairness, we have to state that the St. Sabina congregation is a predominantly black parish and the good reverend has adjusted to his flock in his sermons and his style of how he delivers them in a colorful and ranting way and has remained the pastor of this parish for over 25 years which is supposedly against the Catholic Church’s policy of priest rotation every six to ten years. Time and again, the Archdiocese has yielded to pressure from parishioners and issued waivers for Rev. Pfleger for additional terms at St. Sabina.
Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George has not been heard from publicly in this recent development and this looks to us, that he has not learned anything from the pedophile scandals. The last thing the Catholic Church needs right now is controversy and respond by not acting in an affirmative way (by sending this fellow to a retreat somewhere) when the national media shows footage of Rev. Pfleger’s sermons and actions. It appears to us that they have not learned their lesson yet. The last thing they need as they try to rebuild their reputation in America is someone in their midst to “do his own thing as he sees fit” and therewith bringing the pedophile scandals back to the public’s attention. We do not know what the church’s hierarchy is thinking in this particular situation but it appears to be a matter of disarray and lack of concern over the potential negative impact for the Catholic Church as a whole. We think that is the last thing this church needs and have to wonder if it realizes that tolerance towards Pastor Michael Pfleger and his behavior should not be allowed and applied. Instead the Church from the top down should earnestly try and rebuild its severely damaged reputation. It makes no sense to us here to allow new controversy to develop while you are still paying off huge debts for past indiscretions by some of their priests who clearly violated the trust of parishioners and their children. The Catholic Church is advocating strongly against abortions and divorces and other ‘sins’, yet they make exceptions when it comes to some of their own priests and their demeanor and practices.
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