De afgelopen dagen is, tot mijn niet geringe verbazing, dat symposium toenemend veranderd.
't was belangrijk, al vorig jaar, werd belangrijker door Colm O'Gormans reacties bij diens terugkomst, groeiend toen bekend was dat niet Diarmuid Martin een van de sprekers zou zijn maar de baroness en met Malta.
Maar ded afgelopen dagen is op een vreemde manier het (ook??) wat anders geworden. Hoewel bepaald niet trappelend van enthousiasme, maar zeker geintrigeerd door O'Gormans verbazing en kennelijke vele slagen om zijn arm de bepaald niet cynische verwachtingen naar een aantal mensen, er zijn een paar interessante mensen bij en ik ben heel erg benieuwd naar Scicluna en Wong.
Heerlijk zo'n club van over de hele wereld. Ik had graag een lijstje willen maken: en die wil ik horen en die, hoewel ik de keuze bepaald niet snap. Waarom geen Aziatische vrouw?
Maar dat is niet wat er veranderd is. Wat dat vooral is is inderdaad dat voorgesprek met O'Gorman en het beretrots zijn op Marie Collins. Ik had op een oudste dochter niet trotser kunnen zijn heb ik het donkerbruine vermoeden. Hoewel zeker ook het werk van Cristine Bergmann en de plek die heeft gekregen daaraan bijdraagt. Drie potige dames voor wie ik erg veel respekt heb . Bepaald geen van 3 op hun achterhoofies gevallen, 2 van de 3 in ieder geval tegen flink wat klippen op afgedwongen op dat bolwerk.
En misschien was het wel die lastige opmerking die me een week kauwen heeft gekost van Cees van Dam. Maar wat het zeker was merkte ik bij het bekijken van de lijst met benefactors een oude kennelijke eigenwijze driftkop. En een vrouw die haar shaken met geen mogelijkheid meer onder controle kon krijgen. Het liet de trots op Marie Collins alleen maar toenemen.
Maar die ontroering die daar -tot mijn stomme verbazing - bij hoort zou ik vo
or geen goud hebben willlen missen!
En ik vraag me af of die Voorzienigheid nonnen dat eigenlijk wel zouden hebben. 't Zou me van geen meter verbazen als dat niet zo was en zij zich dat door de neus hebben laten boren.
En dat is dan meer dan stompzinnig! En ook dat weten kunnen ervaren zou ik niet hebben willen missen. En dáár kan geen Deetman met z'n Commissie, geen Samson of kamerlid tegen op.
Bedankt Diarmuid Martin, bedankt zooitje mafkezen.En dan gaan we weer braaf over tot de maatschappelijke agenda, maar dát weten neemt helemaal niemand mij nog ooit meer af. Dat kan nu eenmaal niet met ervaringen.
En dat die maatschappelijke agenda nodig is, dat maakt de site van de jezuiten wel duidelijk.
A make-or-break moment on sex abuse
Feb. 03, 2012
...
The "Towards Healing and Renewal" event looms as a crossroads for the church for at least four reasons.
First, although the "crisis" -- in the sense of lawsuits, massive media coverage, demoralization and confusion in the pews, and all the rest -- has already exploded in Europe and North America, it has yet to arrive in most of the rest of the world. That includes most of the southern hemisphere, where two-thirds of all Catholics today live. The question is whether the church will continue to follow a largely reactive pattern, waiting for a revelation to trigger an avalanche and then scrambling to catch up, or whether it will finally get ahead of the curve.
Second, participants in this event represent a good share of the church's best and brightest minds on fighting abuse, and both the Vatican and the Gregorian have invested considerable resources in putting it together. If these four days don't produce momentum towards wider and deeper reform, it's an open question what might.
Third, both the Vatican and church leaders around the world have long complained of an imbalance in public attention with regard to the crisis. Breakdowns, such as those illustrated by the recent Grand Jury report in Philadelphia and the indictment of Bishop Robert Finn in Kansas City, Mo., generate headlines; success stories, such as the "Protecting God's Children" program, generally go untold.
That was the gist of Benedict XVI's message when he met with a group of church workers dedicated to child protection in the United Kingdom in 2010. He said: "While there are never grounds for complacency, credit should be given where it is due. The efforts of the church in this country and elsewhere, especially in the last 10 years, to guarantee the safety of children and young people ... should be acknowledged."
If there was ever a moment when imaginative communications efforts might produce such an acknowledgment, this event ought to be it.
(As a footnote, the symposium itself is off-limits to the press and the public in order to protect the free flow of discussion, organizers say. Participants, however, have been encouraged to make themselves available to the media throughout the event, and there are a couple of press conferences on the docket.)
Fourth, Catholic leaders have repeatedly stressed that the sexual exploitation of children is a broad social scourge and that the church wants to be a leader and partner with other institutions and movements in keeping children safe. As long as the perception is that the church is part of the problem rather than the solution, however, such partnerships will be tough to forge.
(Don't believe that perception is still widespread? Consider that a Philadelphia judge presiding over the criminal trial of two priests and a former priest recently said in open court, "Anybody that doesn't think there is widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic church is living on another planet.")
This summit represents a unique chance for the church to put its best foot forward, persuading at least some fair-minded people to regard it as a potential ally in child protection efforts. It is only, however, a chance -- next week will reveal how well participants take advantage of it.
For these reasons, the "Towards Healing and Renewal" symposium looms as a sort of make-or-break moment. I'll be on the ground in Rome covering it; watch the NCR Today site for my daily reports.
* * *
As a sidebar, the symposium has already drawn a bit of criticism in Ireland, home to arguably the world's most intense Catholic sex abuse crisis. Observers there have wondered why Dublin's Archbishop Diarmuid Martin isn't among the speakers, especially given perceptions that Martin is on the Vatican's black list because of his searing candor on the crisis, including a willingness to butt heads with other bishops.
On background, organizers say that's not the deal.
First, word out of Ireland is that Martin will actually attend the symposium, along with two other Irish prelates, including Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh, the country's most senior churchman.
Second, Marie Collins is among the speakers. She's an outspoken Irish advocate of reform and someone sympathetic to much of Martin's agenda. Last year, for instance, Collins was among eight victims who took part in a foot-washing ceremony in Dublin led by Martin and Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, intended as a gesture of repentance.
Third, Martin is not the only prominent bishop with a reform record who's not on the formal agenda. O'Malley, for instance, isn't among the speakers, either. The U.S. conference will be represented by Bishop Robert Conlon of Joliet, Ill., who chairs the bishops' Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People.
The primary thrust of the event, organizers say, isn't to preach to the choir or to offer a platform to prominent voices in the hierarchy. Instead, it's to make the church's best practices systematic and institutional, and thus ensure that they outlive the personal charisma of pioneers such as Martin and O'Malley.
How 
all that plays out in the court of public opinion, especially in Ireland, remains to be seen.
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