Abuse of minors including sexual abuse should be a reportable offence. That means that any body in a position of authority over some one accused of abuse of a minor must inform the police immediately.

[Daphne – Roger, the Vatican has laid down these rules already and announced them through its official website. This has led to retired judge Victor Caruana Colombo, who heads the Curia’s Response Team (investigative body) here in Malta to tell the press, last week, that in his view his position and the role of the Response Team are now redundant, because they are bound by confidentiality whereas the new rules dictate that they must immediately make a report to the police.]

Those who do not may find themselves accused of being accessories, and if found guilty they may face civil and criminal penalties including imprisonment and being named in public.

The church of course can and should apply canon law – though that has no legal standing in any sovereign country that I am aware of.

As for the backlog a truth and justice commission could be set up in each country to examine past cases and make recommendations to the governments concerned. Enough is enough.

[Daphne – I did, Roger. I even replied. But it’s under another post. I thought you might have wanted it here. I’ll move it.]

Meanwhile our prime ministers and presidents preach from the pulpit, as though their office obliges them to convince us that they are perfect Catholics and that every Maltese ought to be exactly the same.

Pathetic!

As for Saviour getting married in church, it’s obvious – he wants a complete invitation on the next Pope’s visit!

[Daphne – He’ll get that even with a civil marriage.]

To Harry Purdie:

Where?

I was just thinking of all the hours wasted at ‘duttrina’, after a day at school inc. religion lessons, because my parish stipulated that no MUSEUM attendance = no holy communion or confirmation. Ridiculous. Where is it written in canon law that children should be sent to MUSEUM? Only in bloody Malta.

Then I caught a few ear-mauling moments of “Christian gospel choir” music at the Waterfront. Epic fail. Those “youths” (unfortunate word) will then promptly go off and do their own business, regardless of whether they find strumming guitars and “light” music in church.

As do the faithful of all other religions. Except that they have stuck to their traditions and are respected, even when the faithful, as in Malta, completely ignore the rules. Have you ever seen a clapping, hand-waving, “gospel” choir in the Russian, Greek or Serbian Orthodox Church? And then Catholic clergymen are puzzled that people are fascinated by Buddhism and assorted mystical religions.

I mean, this is just like running a corporation. The aim is to get people to “embrace Catholic life”, with its myriad implications. It’s not working. The “cool Christ with hair gel” image hasn’t worked. So let’s try something else, shall we? Maybe the whole 4/4ths guitar beat services are no longer cutting edge. The alternative is either a Black Eyed Peas mass, or a leaf out of the other European churches’ book. Notice that I say European. Not US televangelical da lordah! type churches.

By way of an anecdote, I was doing the usual futile tour of Paceville a couple of weeks ago, when I looked up at the big screen above Plush (a nightclub) running adverts on a loop. There were advers for parties, with gyrating bodies and hip DJs, more parties, a strip club, another gentleman’s club, then all of a sudden this advert for the Papal visit comes on, complete with episcopal message, and smiling “zghazagh” trotting along in slo-mo to the Waterfront. Right after that was an advert for a strip club.

Get my point? It doesn’t make sense. How in god’s name does the Catholic church expect to be taken seriously?

Right across the road is another nightclub, Browns. Next to the bar is a brass plaque, marking – wait for it – the blessing of the nightclub by Archbishop Paul Cremona.

I mean double-you tee eff? To top it all off we had the man himself visiting Paceville. Oh yes, the monsignors must have thought, “youths” will flock to their churches when they see a “hip” archbishop pretending to party along with them.

I don’t want hip clergymen. I want respectable clergymen who do their job well and can provide some answers in this mess of a world we live in. The archbishop doesn’t need guided tours of Paceville to see how the other side lives. He knows. And if he doesn’t, he’s not fit to lead his flock. Paceville is Sodom and Gomorrah, exponential. That’s all he needs to know. Just about the only commandment that is being obeyed is “Do not kill”, and to a certain extent, “Do not steal”.

It’ll take more than a blessing bestowed upon a nightclub to turn the tide. And I’m not even sure the tide ever did turn. People were stealing and coveting and fornicating since Adam though “That Granny Smith looks delicious”.

I’m not the man to provide the answer. Hell if I could, I’d be Pope. But the Catholic church has to decide once and for all what its objectives are, and spell them out in plain language.

——–
Now that’s a heartfelt rant.

” Oh, I am angry and resentful, but my anger and my resentment are separate from my being”

Without entering into Cartesian ontology, how exactly does that work?

Your emotions are not something detached from you, they affect the way you think and reason, the way you act and the message you choose to write (and might i add very clearly indeed).

From what you’ve written I seem to detect a hint of pride when stating that you foster this resentment, this anger. You seem to think it’s justified, you seem to think your wrath makes your opinion more powerful.

You couldn’t be further from the truth! This is (in my opinion) the exact behavior Daphne was referring to in this blog post. Regurgitating the age old perceived flaws of the Catholic church, with the same old bitterness and the unmistakably arrogant overtones, of a person who has formed his opinion on biased misinformation found all over the internet.

”Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools. ~Albert Einstein”

Re cathedrals: you clearly have no knowledge whatsoever about (the history of) art, culture or the Catholic Church. I won’t even bother going into the allegations you made about the ‘evils’ which cathedrals bestow on our society.

‘’ They mean well, but their whole aim and object seems to be to serve God by conciliating Mammon. There is nothing more criminally futile. Do they rise above the world? Hell no. They have become tradesmen, variety-entertainers, and entrepreneurs’’

I think your comment is risible at best, when you take into consideration the fact that the Catholic Church alone has been, for nearly 2000 years, the largest charity worldwide (as Daphne also rightly pointed out with regards to the Church’s work with children).

‘’ but they signify very real grievances which should be taken seriously.’’

‘Sorry Miss, but unfortunately I couldn’t complete my assignment… you see St. John’s Co-Cathedral was impeding my creativity…’’

Good stuff, Baxxter. Love it when you go on a rant.

Ooooooh, now here’s a ‘man’ with a problem(s).

In the case of the alleged abuses in Malta, I do not fully comprehend why it seems that the focus is being placed entirely on the Catholic Church. The state has a significant part of the responsibility to deliver justice to the victims.

In his address to the Pope soon after landing in Luqa, the President of the Republic told HH “It is therefore the Church and even the state’s duty to work hand in hand to… curb cases of abuse so that justice will not only be done but [be] seen to be done” (BBC website, 17 Apr 2010)

According to The Malta Independent (18 Apr 2010), the alleged cases were publicised in 2003, and the police started investigations back then. But it also reported one of the victims saying that: “Even though court proceedings have started against the three accused, they are moving at “a snail’s pace, which is prolonging our search for justice in the process…”.

Well, it has now been 7 years since the cases were made public.

The President of the Republic is also the Chairman of the Commission for the Administration of Justice. And I understand (but I am subject to correction) that the Chief Justice was present at the Pope’s arrival in Luqa.

We need reassurance that the court case will be concluded soon.