Number 266 on the papal list, Benedict XVI, offered a Sacrifice of the Mass on 11 June 2010 to conclude the Year of the Priest.
MSNBC ran the headline, Pope begs forgivness, promises action on abuse. AP Writer Nicole Winfield takes us out of the gate:
VATICAN CITY - Addressing the clerical abuse scandal from the heart of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has begged forgiveness from victims and promised at a Mass celebrated by 15,000 priests from around the world to "do everything possible" to protect children.
From the vatican website, the very long sentence* spoken by Pope 266:
We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life’s dangers.
Heads up for a new clergy resources division offering lots of seminars and correspondence courses and mandatory online workshops for this year's - and subsequent classes of - recruits. No word on the fate of the fallen, although there was word about the greatest of the fallen, the enemy himself. Winfield puts it simply:
Benedict implied the devil was behind the timing of the scandal, saying the Year of the Priest was supposed to have been a year in celebration of the priesthood and encouragement for new vocations.
His holiness 266 was more eloquent:
We have to beg for workers for God’s harvest, and this petition to God is, at the same time, his own way of knocking on the hearts of young people who consider themselves able to do what God considers them able to do. It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the “enemy”; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones*, in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God’s concern for our good, turns into its very opposite.
*This clause is the first mention of the allegations. The very long sentence followed. Then the pope went on:
Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God’s gift, a gift concealed in “earthen vessels” which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, his gift becomes a commitment to respond to God’s courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility. The word of God, which we have sung in the Entrance Antiphon of the liturgy, can speak to us, at this hour, of what it means to become and to be priests: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29).
From here the pope announced the celebration of the Sacred Heart Of Jesus which was pierced by a Roman sword to allow a double flow of knowingness of God's heart as interpreted through the liturgy. He spent a moment meditating on chanting. Then he expounded on the verses of Psalm 23 as applicable to the new shepherds. He told them that the priesthood was more than an office, it was a sacrament that bestowed the power to forgive sins. He spoke to their responsibilities for the flock (men and women - nothing about children). He hit a few history notes. He advised them on the care and wielding of the rod and staff.
Other than the clause and the long sentence, the pope made no mention of the pedophile accusations, coverup charges, perpetrators' dispositions, victim settlements or preventative measures to-do list. However, Winfield was good enough to puff the piece by recounting three other occasions of papal responsibility assumption; one in a letter to the Irish Catholics, a second at a private meeting with victims in Malta, and most recently on the papal plane en route to Portugal.
Returning to the celebration, Pope 266 opened his homily with an ending:
The Year for Priests which we have celebrated on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of the holy Curè of Ars, the model of priestly ministry in our world, is now coming to an end.
Cure d'Ars: St.Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, France (8 May1786-4 August1859). Director of souls, founder of a home for destitute girls which became a French institutional model ("closed in 1847, because the holy curé thought that he was not justified in maintaining it in the face of the opposition of many good people"); a military deserter; educationally-challenged; and a saint in three miracle categories:
MSNBC ran the headline, Pope begs forgivness, promises action on abuse. AP Writer Nicole Winfield takes us out of the gate:
VATICAN CITY - Addressing the clerical abuse scandal from the heart of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has begged forgiveness from victims and promised at a Mass celebrated by 15,000 priests from around the world to "do everything possible" to protect children.
From the vatican website, the very long sentence* spoken by Pope 266:
We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life’s dangers.
Heads up for a new clergy resources division offering lots of seminars and correspondence courses and mandatory online workshops for this year's - and subsequent classes of - recruits. No word on the fate of the fallen, although there was word about the greatest of the fallen, the enemy himself. Winfield puts it simply:
Benedict implied the devil was behind the timing of the scandal, saying the Year of the Priest was supposed to have been a year in celebration of the priesthood and encouragement for new vocations.
His holiness 266 was more eloquent:
We have to beg for workers for God’s harvest, and this petition to God is, at the same time, his own way of knocking on the hearts of young people who consider themselves able to do what God considers them able to do. It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the “enemy”; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones*, in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God’s concern for our good, turns into its very opposite.
*This clause is the first mention of the allegations. The very long sentence followed. Then the pope went on:
Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God’s gift, a gift concealed in “earthen vessels” which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, his gift becomes a commitment to respond to God’s courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility. The word of God, which we have sung in the Entrance Antiphon of the liturgy, can speak to us, at this hour, of what it means to become and to be priests: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29).
From here the pope announced the celebration of the Sacred Heart Of Jesus which was pierced by a Roman sword to allow a double flow of knowingness of God's heart as interpreted through the liturgy. He spent a moment meditating on chanting. Then he expounded on the verses of Psalm 23 as applicable to the new shepherds. He told them that the priesthood was more than an office, it was a sacrament that bestowed the power to forgive sins. He spoke to their responsibilities for the flock (men and women - nothing about children). He hit a few history notes. He advised them on the care and wielding of the rod and staff.
Other than the clause and the long sentence, the pope made no mention of the pedophile accusations, coverup charges, perpetrators' dispositions, victim settlements or preventative measures to-do list. However, Winfield was good enough to puff the piece by recounting three other occasions of papal responsibility assumption; one in a letter to the Irish Catholics, a second at a private meeting with victims in Malta, and most recently on the papal plane en route to Portugal.
Returning to the celebration, Pope 266 opened his homily with an ending:
The Year for Priests which we have celebrated on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of the holy Curè of Ars, the model of priestly ministry in our world, is now coming to an end.
Cure d'Ars: St.Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, France (8 May1786-4 August1859). Director of souls, founder of a home for destitute girls which became a French institutional model ("closed in 1847, because the holy curé thought that he was not justified in maintaining it in the face of the opposition of many good people"); a military deserter; educationally-challenged; and a saint in three miracle categories:
- first, the obtaining of money for his charities and food for his orphans;
- secondly, supernatural knowledge of the past and future;
- thirdly, healing the sick, especially children.
