Spiritual Self Help for the Catholic Church
Many people have washed their hands of religion across the board. From such a standpoint, any examples of intolerance or moral transgression by conventional religion is seen only as further inevitable proof of their destructiveness and the need for their urgent demise.
This viewpoint, however, overlooks the fact that for many millions of people, religious belief, community and practice brings a light, hope and empowerment to lives that may otherwise not have found it.
Through this perspective, the recent revelations regarding the transgressions of the Catholic church become all the more disappointing and, indeed, abhorrent.
Children were abused at the hands of men who they and their families saw as figures of trust and authority. Furthermore, the abuse and misuse of power did not stop at the perpetrators themselves. it seems to have spread all the way up to the very top of the Catholic church to Bishops, Cardinals and even the Pope himself - all of whom appear guilty of failing to act with appropriate seriousness and judgment in dealing with the situation.
The whole episode has unearthed a moral cancer within the Catholic church and the full extent of suffering it has caused can barely begin to be comprehended by those of us on the outside.
Child abuse leads to massive trauma for often the entire lifetime of the abused and, because the injury is psychological, it remains invisible to all but those closest to the afflicted. I see it all the time myself in my work as a psychiatrist and I have witnessed countless devastated lives over my career. No verbal apology can ever make up for the tidal wave of suffering that the Catholic church is today responsible for. Yet, beyond words of apology, very little action seems to have taken place.
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