Would I be irrational in asking whether with the history and record of the Church in recent times suppressing the widespread news of abuse and molestation of children and adults under their care, if there are among the ranks of the saints such abusers and molesters of which we know nothing about.
In those days of fear, intimidation and excommunication when it was so easy to suppress such occurences with the enormous power and clout of the church that reached in all areas of Catholic life and with the absence of communication as we know it today, I have no doubt in my mind that this is a distinct possibility. The saintly abusers and molesters would have seen no conflict in the good they were doing and in their depravities. After all there was no one to accuse them and tell them they were wrong. If their superiors knew or suspected them of it, they would have kept all the more silent than the superiors of today. What better service could the Popes perform than make the individual a saint and thus remove whatever controversy that might have been generated? I apologize in advance if I hurt anybody's sensitivities, but sainthood is a very man-made concept and therefore susceptible to the faults of the human condition. Roland. On 10/15/06, Goa's Pride Goa-World.Com <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Pope Benedict XVI canonizes 4 new saints > By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer > > VATICAN CITY - > > Pope Benedict XVI gave Catholics four news saints > Sunday, bestowing the honor on a 19th century nun who > struggled in the American frontier, a bishop who > tended to the wounded during the Mexican Revolution > and two Italian clergy who worked with the deaf. > The pope also elevated to sainthood Bishop Rafael > Guizar Valencia, a missionary who risked his life to > tend to the wounded during the Mexican Revolution. > Guizar Valencia, who died in 1938, was a great uncle > of the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of > the Legionaries of Christ order of priest whom the > Vatican restricted from public ministry this year amid > allegations Degollado sexually abused seminarians. > "We register them in the roll call of the saints and > we establish that in all the Church they will be > devotedly honored among the saints," Benedict said as > he read the canonization ritual in Latin. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
