As we all know the past couple of weeks have been very difficult ones for Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican. The Easter celebrations in Rome, the most joyous in the liturgical year, were marred by accusations that the Vatican mishandled or covered-up cases of sexual abuse of children by priests over the years. There was even some ecumenical and interreligious fallout over the scandal as examples were misused and unintended statements were made. Not only do Roman Catholics experience the spiritual and psychic drain caused by these revelations but other religious folks also are perplexed and angered by these news stories.
In an attempt to defend the pope, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the Pontifical Household, during the liturgy of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday, read a passage from a letter he received from a Jewish friend. His friend wrote that he believed that the recent media attacks on the Holy Father and the Vatican were similar to the bias against Jews. He wrote, “I am following the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful by the whole world. The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt, remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.”
This statement was made on Good Friday, a day that in the past was marked by language in the liturgy that prayed for the conversion of the Jews and used the word “perfidious” to describe all Jews, even though they were both removed after the Second Vatican Council. Jewish leaders around the world reacted negatively to the comparison used in Father Cantalamessa’s sermon. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish rights group, said, “How can you compare the collective guilt assigned to the Jews which caused deaths of millions of innocent people to perpetrators who abuse their faith and their calling by sexually abusing children?” Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League in the United States, thought the remarks were born of ignorance, not malice. He said, “You would think that a senior priest in the church would have a better understanding of anti-Semitism than to make this hideous comparison.”
Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, remarked that Father Cantalamessa’s sermon represented his own thoughts and was not an official Vatican statement. Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, of Baltimore, blasted Father Cantalamessa’s comparison, saying, “Father Cantalamessa’s words on Good Friday, somehow linking the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal with anti-Semitism, were unfortunate and reprehensible. They pose harm to Catholic-Jewish relations in Baltimore and around the world and I personally denounce them. On behalf of the Catholic Church in Baltimore, I offer apologies to our friends in the Jewish community, to victims of clergy sexual abuse and to anyone offended by Father Cantalamessa’s personal views.”
On another front, the Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of the Anglican Communion, Dr. Rowan Williams, in an interview on BBC discussing the sex abuse scandal unfolding in Ireland, made some unfortunate remarks that he later clarified. In essence, he said that the Catholic Church in Ireland had lost all its credibility over its response to the sex abuse scandals. He described the abuse scandal as a “colossal trauma” for Ireland. He said, “I was speaking to an Irish friend recently who said that it’s quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now,” he added, “And an institution so deeply bound into the life of a society suddenly becoming, suddenly losing all credibility, that’s not just a problem for the church, it’s a problem for everybody in Ireland.”
To say the least, Archbishop Williams remarks angered both Catholic and Anglican Church leaders in Ireland. All this occurs with the impending visit of Pope Benedict to Britain this coming September. Archbishop Williams called religious leaders in Ireland to express his “deep sorrow and regret” over his misstatement. He reassured those leaders he never meant to offend or criticize the Irish Church.
As we see the sex abuse scandal continues to impact the church on every level, even ecumenically and interreligiously. Let us pray that the light of day will bring healing to the victims and all people of faith.
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