Posted by:
Lot's Wife
(
)
Date: February 05, 2019 05:35PM
This clip is worth watching; and the article, worth reading.
In it the Pope acknowledges the accuracy of a new report in the publication Women Church World, which describes long-standing abuse of nuns. In his words, clerics kept nuns "in slavery, even to the point of sexual slavery." Some of those women bore children, others underwent abortions. Also significant is the observation that the Vatican long knew of these problems around the world but chose not to address them.
It is a remarkable admission, probably motivated in part by the #metoo movement and the aggressive legal actions pursued by victims of child abuse and torture in the last few years. Silence is no longer a feasible political strategy. But the path forward is not altogether clear. For the hierarchy includes many who are complicit in the sins/crimes, and there is apparently opposition to reform. The Pope accordingly warns that the Vatican meeting this month on child abuse, which was used to shut down the more ambitious American bishops' efforts last year, will probably not achieve much success. Expectations, he said, should be "deflated."
Perhaps the most important statement the Pope made, however, was one that explained how such horrors were possible. He said that the kernel of the problem is the unchecked power of the clergy abroad and the "hierarchy," meaning both regional leadership and the Vatican itself.
That issue of unfettered authority is where the Catholic scandals touch on Mormonism. My view, as I've said before, is that the LDS church is probably not as guilty of covering up clerical abuse as the Catholic church because there is so much change in personnel from the branches and wards up through the lower ranks of the GAs. Such turnover makes it more difficult for abusers to continue their abuse and harder for the hierarchy to keep secrets. Put more succinctly, there are probably more Joseph Bishops in Catholicism than in Mormonism.
But whether or not that surmise is correct, the key is again unbridled power. No one, individual or family, should ever cede moral conscience and moral responsibility to another. When that is done, evil becomes much more likely. And if there is a hierarchy in place that wants to preserve its own reputation and protect its favored sons, coverups too become inevitable.
In that sense the Catholic Church stands as an indication of what the LDS Church would likely have become if it had existed for a few more centuries without today's level of public scrutiny and legal accountability. We can thank whatever gods may be, in other words, that Mormonism has not had the time and the internal secrecy necessary to fully explore its potential for corruption. Thank those gods again for the courageous ones who have shined their lights into the recesses of Mormonism and exposed the rats hiding in the shadows.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-priests-nuns-sexual-slavery-abuse-saint-jean-order-france/Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2019 06:19PM by Lot's Wife.