The following comes from a Feb. 21 post on One Mad Mom.
Can we just look at the program for this increasingly obvious waste of time in Rome this week?
The Protection of Minors in the Church
THURSDAY 21 FEBRUARY: RESPONSIBILITY
9.30 1st PRESENTATION by Sig. Card. Luis Antonio Tagle: Smell of the sheep. Knowing their pain and healing their wounds is at the heart of the shepherd’s task.
Thirty minutes of a talk we’ve heard before ad nauseum. Stop trying to smell like sheep and maybe listen to them for a change. And I don’t mean your handpicked ones.
10.15 2nd PRESENTATION S.E. Mons. Charles Jude Scicluna: Church as field hospital. Taking responsibility
Thirty minutes of another talk we’ve heard before. I am intrigued by “taking responsibility” and cannot wait to hear who they are referring to here. I’m afraid of what I might hear, though, because I think I’ve heard multiple times this week the laity is supposed to apologize for clericalism.
11.20 Working Groups
Seventy minutes of working groups.
12.30 Conclusion
Followed by a three and a half hour break! It’s probably needed to help them get over the confusion of why they’re there in the first place.
16.00 3rd PRESENTATION Sig. Card. Rubén Salazar Gómez: The Church in a moment of crisis – Facing conflicts and tensions and acting decisively
Umm, I’m sure this isn’t THE biggest crisis the Church has faced, but “a moment of crisis?” We’ve been talking about this for seventeen years by my count. When is somebody going to to the “acting decisively” thing already?! I mean, we can’t even agree on what’s caused this, but that’s DEFINITELY not on the agenda for this meeting.
…
FRIDAY 22 FEBRUARY: ACCOUNTABILITY
Try to control your laughter.
9.15 1st PRESENTATION Sig. Card. Oswald Gracias: Collegiality: sent together
Thirty minutes because nobody’s ever heard a thing about collegiality. Oh, wait…
10.00 2nd PRESENTATION Sig. Card. Blase Joseph Cupich: Synodality: jointly responsible
Thirty minutes on synodality, which now apparently means everyone is responsible for the mess some have created.
…
16.00 3rd PRESENTATION Dott.ssa Linda Ghisoni: Communio: to work together
Thirty minutes to wonder what in the hell the last seventeen years was about.
17.05 Working Groups
Another fifty-five minutes to figure out how to explain this to their flock followed by presentation of it.
SATURDAY 23 FEBRUARY: TRANSPARENCY
It’s going to take me awhile to stop laughing at this title. Seriously, the Vatican has failed so miserably in this area and they’re now going to lead the charge? Okay. One word: Vigano.
9.15 1st PRESENTATION Sup. Gen. Sr. Veronica Openibo, SHCJ: Openess: sent out into the world
Thirty minutes on heaven-knows-what, but I can tell there might be problems when you don’t even know how to spell it. And, yes, I’m going there because how much money are we spending on the messaging? Homeschool moms say spelling counts!
…
16.00 3rd PRESENTATION Dott.ssa Valentina Alazraki: Communication: to all people
I hope it goes something like “Actions speak louder than words,” but I’m reasonably sure this isn’t going to be the message. Talk is cheap and “communication” is even cheaper. It’ll probably have something to do with lists of accused which, apparently, they think is going to make us all feel better about the situation.
17.30 Penitential liturgy (Sala Regia)
Can you say photo-op?
Which sessions addressed actively homosexual priests and chastity for all?
I’m not sure how the kind of cynacism on rabid display in this article moves any of us forward.
She offers zero first-person reporting. She offers no honest critique. All she offers is criticism without honest reflection. We need a lot of reform in our Church, but she offers us only cheap shots at the hierarchy. She’s basically just like a 17th century Lutheran.
I agree her commentary is as vapid as she claims the schedule is.
It was just snarky for the sake of being snarky. I don’t know why CCD ran it, really.
YFC– this is not an intellectual essay, by a reporter covering the Vatican summit. I see a very frustrated Catholic mom, upset by Church leaders who seem to never come up with effective leadership– and our churches are not safe, for our children! That is what I see!
This was not written by a reporter. She is just a blogger who won’t even give her identity on her website.
Anonymous, there are many on here who think that the reason our pews are empty is becuase we don’t have the TLM and supposedly straight priests, when the evidence is exactly what you suggest: Our Churches are not safe for our girls and boys to fully participate and yet be safe, with role models leading us, from attacks from priests and from right wing activist catholics who think there was some golden age to which we must return.
What’s wrong with Lutherans? Maybe we RCs need a few people to nail complaints to the Cathedral doors.
To me it all seemed like Vatican 2 babble. Process blah process blah.
Why should we trust them? The last time they had McCarrick up there instead of Cupich.
You want “honest reflection” How about disgust and anger.
To Your Fellow Catholic: The kind of “cynacism”, i.e., “cynicism” One Mad Mom refers to is the ennui we Catholics feel about the continual perfidy of the church hierarchy. We, the normally silent but prayerful pew sitters, will no longer tolerate the calamity that is the general synod. The Church will not survive unless there is an intervention by the laity to put a stop to the dissembling and ineffectual governance by that hierarchy.
To Your Fellow Catholic: The kind of “cynacism”, i.e., “cynicism” One Mad Mom refers to is the ennui we Catholics feel about the continual perfidy of the church hierarchy. We, the normally silent but prayerful pew sitters, will no longer tolerate the calamity that is the general synod. The Church will not survive unless there is an intervention by the laity to put a stop to the dissembling and ineffectual governance by that hierarchy.
I have also been discouraged, watching this Vatican summit on television! All these years– so many Churchmen don’t seem to deal with crime, in a responsible, adult, realistic, mature, common-sense way! About twenty years ago, during a bus ride near a hospital– I saw a kid in front of me grab a wallet from the pocket of a poor, elderly man on a walker. I grabbed my cell phone, dialed 911, and screamed at the robber– and the bus driver stopped the bus. Lots of (RESPONSIBLE, MATURE, ADULT, MASCULINE) men jumped the robber– and reclaimed the stolen wallet!! The cops came and took the robber to jail. Justice done! Is that so hard??
So– what do you do, in the case of a crime committed at a church– by a cleric? Same as in the secular world! If you (or your child) gets sexually assaulted/raped at church– –you dial 911. You go to the police, and make a report. The police go get the accused cleric and ask him some questions– and probably hand-cuff him and haul him off to jail. Next, you get a lawyer, and a court date is set. The local bishop has to make a report and suspend the accused priest from his duties (whether he goes to jail or not)– and publicly announce it. A Church court date also is set. The judge and jury at the trials, assign punishments, if the accused cleric is found guilty. There. Is that so hard?
Your Fellow Catholic: your analysis of this article is spot on. What a bunch of whiny drivel!
Plus one. Really dumb commentary.
If the Bishops don’t have the courage to name the problem, we have little hope for any real solution. Pedophilia is only one issue, the larger issue is chastity and clericalism. Gay, straight or otherwise, if a priest isn’t chaste and his brothers won’t correct him, we wind up with clerics like McCarrick.
Agreed. I’ll take fries with that shake-down of the situation, Mister or Ms Pew Potato!