Pope admits church is to blame for abuse by clergy
Pope Benedict XVI has admitted that the church is at fault for abuse by clergy and it is not an outside campaign, according to news from the Associated Press
LISBON, Portugal – Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday blamed the church's own sins for the clerical abuse scandal — not a campaign mounted by outsiders — and called for profound purification to end what he called the "greatest persecution" the church has endured.His strong comments placed responsibility for the crisis squarely on the sins of pedophile priests, repudiating the Vatican's initial response to the scandal in which it blamed the media as well as pro-choice and pro-gay marriage advocates for mounting what it called a campaign against the church and the pope.
Speaking en route to Portugal, Benedict said the Catholic church had always suffered from problems of its own making but that "today we see it in a truly terrifying way."
"The greatest persecution of the church doesn't come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church," the pontiff said. "The church needs to profoundly relearn penitence, accept purification, learn forgiveness but also justice."
The comments marked Benedict's most thorough admission of the church's own guilt in creating the scandal. Previously he has blamed abusers themselves and, in the case of Ireland, the bishops who failed to stop them.
The reactions to this statement are all over the map. When he said, "the greatest persecution of the church", is the word "persecution" lost in translation? It feels like he's still saying the church is a victim. Perhaps by church he's distinguish the church/people from the hierarchy/institution -- the "within" then being the hierarchy. Is that what he's saying? If so, that's real progress.
I searched in vain for a full transcript. The BBC video here is the closest I've found,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8674350.stm
Posted by John B. Chilton![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 11, 2010 2:25 PM
A start maybe, but I agree with John that "persecution" is a strange choice of a word. And the pope still seems to be doing a distancing act, distancing the church from itself. "I didn't knock the vase over; my hand did it."
June Butler
Posted by GrandmèreMimi![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 11, 2010 5:22 PM
This sounds much like the comment that "it's Christians who give Christians a bad name." I don't think he's addressing the hierarchy narrowly, but rather acknowledging that the folks who have erred - abusers and obfuscators alike - are in the church, and that they, not critics, are the problem. Now, it remains to be seen all that might be done about this....
Marshall Scott
Posted by Execute![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 11, 2010 5:25 PM
Or, as Pogo says, "We has met the enemy and they are us." Usually the case.
Posted by Paul Woodrum![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 12, 2010 9:01 AM