Volledige tekst toespraak paus seksueel misbruik priesters

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Dear Broth­ers,

1. Let me assure you first of all that I greatly appre­ci­ate the effort you are mak­ing to keep the Holy See, and me per­son­ally, informed regard­ing the com­plex and dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion which has arisen in your coun­try in recent months. I am con­fi­dent that your dis­cus­sions here will bear much fruit for the good of the Catholic peo­ple of the United States. You have come to the house of the Suc­ces­sor of Peter, whose task it is to con­firm his brother Bish­ops in faith and love, and to unite them around Christ in the ser­vice of God’s Peo­ple. The door of this house is always open to you. All the more so when your com­mu­ni­ties are in dis­tress.

Like you, I too have been deeply grieved by the fact that priests and reli­gious, whose voca­tion it is to help peo­ple live holy lives in the sight of God, have them­selves caused such suf­fer­ing and scan­dal to the young. Because of the great harm done by some priests and reli­gious, the Church her­self is viewed with dis­trust, and many are offended at the way in which the Church’s lead­ers are per­ceived to have acted in this mat­ter. The abuse which has caused this cri­sis is by every stan­dard wrong and rightly con­sid­ered a crime by soci­ety; it is also an appalling sin in the eyes of God. To the vic­tims and their fam­i­lies, wher­ever they may be, I express my pro­found sense of sol­i­dar­ity and con­cern.

2. It is true that a gen­er­al­ized lack of knowl­edge of the nature of the prob­lem and also at times the advice of clin­i­cal experts led Bish­ops to make deci­sions which sub­se­quent events showed to be wrong. You are now work­ing to estab­lish more reli­able cri­te­ria to ensure that such mis­takes are not repeated. At the same time, even while rec­og­niz­ing how indis­pens­able these cri­te­ria are, we can­not for­get the power of Chris­t­ian con­ver­sion, that rad­i­cal deci­sion to turn away from sin and back to God, which reaches to the depths of a person’s soul and can work extra­or­di­nary change.

Nei­ther should we for­get the immense spir­i­tual, human and social good that the vast major­ity of priests and reli­gious in the United States have done and are still doing. The Catholic Church in your coun­try has always pro­moted human and Chris­t­ian val­ues with great vigor and gen­eros­ity, in a way that has helped to con­sol­i­date all that is noble in the Amer­i­can peo­ple.

A great work of art may be blem­ished, but its beauty remains; and this is a truth which any intel­lec­tu­ally hon­est critic will rec­og­nize. To the Catholic com­mu­ni­ties in the United States, to their Pas­tors and mem­bers, to the men and women reli­gious, to teach­ers in Catholic uni­ver­si­ties and schools, to Amer­i­can mis­sion­ar­ies in all parts of the world, go the whole­hearted thanks of the entire Catholic Church and the per­sonal thanks of the Bishop of Rome.

3. The abuse of the young is a grave symp­tom of a cri­sis affect­ing not only the Church but soci­ety as a whole. It is a deep-seated cri­sis of sex­ual moral­ity, even of human rela­tion­ships, and its prime vic­tims are the fam­ily and the young. In address­ing the prob­lem of abuse with clar­ity and deter­mi­na­tion, the Church will help soci­ety to under­stand and deal with the cri­sis in its midst.

It must be absolutely clear to the Catholic faith­ful, and to the wider com­mu­nity, that Bish­ops and supe­ri­ors are con­cerned, above all else, with the spir­i­tual good of souls. Peo­ple need to know that there is no place in the priest­hood and reli­gious life for those who would harm the young. They must know that Bish­ops and priests are totally com­mit­ted to the full­ness of Catholic truth on mat­ters of sex­ual moral­ity, a truth as essen­tial to the renewal of the priest­hood and the epis­co­pate as it is to the renewal of mar­riage and fam­ily life.

4. We must be con­fi­dent that this time of trial will bring a purifi­ca­tion of the entire Catholic com­mu­nity, a purifi­ca­tion that is urgently needed if the Church is to preach more effec­tively the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its lib­er­at­ing force. Now you must ensure that where sin increased, grace will all the more abound (cf. Rom 5:20). So much pain, so much sor­row must lead to a holier priest­hood, a holier epis­co­pate, and a holier Church.

God alone is the source of holi­ness, and it is to him above all that we must turn for for­give­ness, for heal­ing and for the grace to meet this chal­lenge with uncom­pro­mis­ing courage and har­mony of pur­pose. Like the Good Shep­herd of last Sunday’s Gospel, Pas­tors must go among their priests and peo­ple as men who inspire deep trust and lead them to rest­ful waters (cf. Ps 22:2).

I beg the Lord to give the Bish­ops of the United States the strength to build their response to the present cri­sis upon the solid foun­da­tions of faith and upon gen­uine pas­toral char­ity for the vic­tims, as well as for the priests and the entire Catholic com­mu­nity in your coun­try. And I ask Catholics to stay close to their priests and Bish­ops, and to sup­port them with their prayers at this dif­fi­cult time.

The peace of the Risen Christ be with you!


Gepub­liceerd op don­derdag 25 april 2002  | Geschreven door Redac­tie Rorate