This morning I heard the editor of the Tablet, Catherine Pepinster, being interviewed again on the Today Programme about the latest accusation against the Pope which the Vatican has defended itself. I didn`t listen too closely to what was being said as it sounded like many of the interviews I`d heard before.
However I was pleased to read an article in the Tablet yesterday by Fr Timothy Radcliffe with the title, `Should I stay or should I go` which I thought made many useful points, explaining why the present situation is not a reason for leaving the Catholic Church. Copyright prevents me giving the whole article but it is available on the Tablet site here.
...the statistics for the US, from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2004, suggest that Catholic clergy do not offend more than the married clergy of other Churches.
Some surveys even give a lower level of offence for Catholic priests. They are less likely to offend than lay school teachers, and perhaps half as likely as the general population. Celibacy does not push people to abuse children. It is simply untrue to imagine that leaving the Church for another denomination would make one’s children safer. We must face the terrible fact that the abuse of children is widespread in every part of society. To make the Church the scapegoat would be a cover-up.
and
From the beginning and throughout history, Peter has often been a wobbly rock, a source of scandal, corrupt, and yet this is the one – and his successors – whose task is to hold us together so that we may witness to Christ’s defeat on Easter Day of sin’s power to divide. And so the Church is stuck with me whatever happens. We may be embarrassed to admit that we are Catholics, but Jesus kept shameful company from the beginning
I would like to hear Fr Radcliffe being interviewed on the Today Programme or Newsnight.
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