Bishops to put on `sackcloth and ashes' - Cardinal Brady

Nu de Ierse bisschoppen de vraag of - indien ze Joop van de Ende produkties of haar Ierse equivalent niet geinteresseerd krijgen in een aantal niet-de-eerste-de-beste shows - reddingsoperaties van een berghelling van de nationale kerkelijke hierarchie de meest praktische manier is om om te gaan met geld van de Congregaties beantwoord hebben, blijven mijn vragen toch weer over
dat rare woord van Tarcisio Bertone vernederend, nu in de versie van aartsbisschop Brady, spreidt middel en wijsvingervinger en spuug erdoor: laat ze die man in vredesnaam niet in dat Vaticaan opsluiten.

Brady kreeg het van een slachtoffer.
a victim told him that he wanted the see the bishops humiliated and this is what is happening.


Bishops to put on `sackcloth and ashes' - Cardinal Brady
Date:
18 Feb 2010
Garry O'Sullivan, in Rome

The Irish bishops will perform an act of penance during Lent, equivalent to putting on 'sackcloth and ashes' to demonstrate their humility and their empathy with victims of clerical child sexual abuse, Cardinal Brady has said.

Speaking after the 24 Irish bishops' meeting with the Pope and flanked by four bishops, Cardinal Seán Brady told the world's media that a victim told him that he wanted the see the bishops humiliated and this is what is happening.

He said that the bishops had discussed penitential acts, such as climbing Croagh Patrick or going to Lough Derg but that whatever they do, it will be the equivalent of ''sackcloth and ashes''.

Bishop Denis Brennan of Ferns said that he knew that victims ''feel disillusioned but that they also want the bishops to hang in there with them''.

He said that during Lent the bishops would engage with the parishes in their dioceses and would encourage a listening process, as well as continuing their traditional outreach to the poor and the marginalised.

Questioned about the lack of unity among the bishops, Cardinal Brady said that while there were ''differences of opinion'', the bishops were ''united in the matter of dealing with child sexual abuse and that their unity was never greater than at their meetings in Rome,'' which he described as a mini-Synod.

He also said that the bishops did not feel like scapegoats and that the Vatican had offered them help to deal with the situation and offered them encouragement to bring about spiritual renewal in Ireland.

In a communiqué issued after the two-day Rome summit, the Vatican said that the Pope ''challenged the bishops to address the problems of the past with determination and resolve, and to face the present crisis with honesty and courage''.

Cardinal Brady acknowledged the ''real failure in our leadership'' but said that humility and real penance by the bishops would bring about a change of heart.

For his part, Bishop Brennan said that during his five minutes with the Pope he told the Holy Father ''of the rupture in the Irish Church between the bishops, people and society and that there had been a breach of trust and there was no quick fix''.

Keeping with the Lenten theme, Cardinal Brady, said the bishops would work with the poor, and also that they would consult their parishes in every diocese. Finally, the talk of renewal may have some meat on its bones as a result of the push Pope Benedict has given the Irish bishops.