This is from the intercessions from Monday, the seventh week of Easter Evening Prayer.  The response is; Lord, send your consoling Spirit into your Church.                               Grant the rich and poor may meet in friendship, for you are the God of both, do not let the rich make riches their god.

What is it that the Catholic bishops and the clergy administrators did with what is now known as the clergy sexual scandal?  Besides not following the dictates of canon law everyone in charge were worried about scandal, the local churches being sued, and they did make riches their god.

Now my diocese, if I read the minutes correctly, has said that since everyone is a victim, (which is true in a sense), the sexual scandal will not be discussed any further.  The minutes said; Healing – Administrative and move on  don’t focus on it.  All were victims, Church clergy, victims, laity.  We should acknowledge and not spend time on it./  People care deeply about priests, scandal has affected all.

Now let’s look at that shall we.  How come the clergy sexual scandal has affected us all?  Could it be because priests, bishops, clergy administration did not deal with cases as they arose?  Trying to ignore it worked out really well for all parties concerned didn’t it.  The delusional thinking, more innocuously put Magical thinking, on the part of so many bishops, administrations and members of the clergy world-wide did create the depth and breath of this scandal.  This is a human driven scandal.  Ignoring the elephant in the room did not work in the past and will most assuredly not work now. 

I for one need a better explanation of what, Healing – Administrative and move on  don’t focus on it.  All were victims, Church clergy, victims, laity.  We should acknowledge and not spend time on it./  People care deeply about priests, scandal has affected all, really means.  I freely admit that I am not the brightest bulb in the sign but I am not the dimmest either.  It seems to me that taking the position that the diocese has taken is tantamount to same old, same old. 

Come Holy Spirit!