Sex, Gender and the Sacred

The road to the sacred runs through the carnal. Not only the Bible but Life itself reveals that sexuality is more spiritual than biological. The erotic is God's poetry of love calling us out of ourselves to awareness of beauty and to an expansive creativity and giving of ourselves. We go to God through one another, via loving, not apart from one another. --Paschal.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Devil or Angel, Catholic Bishops, Which are you?

By Founder, www.catholics4justice.com

Would an Angel turn a deaf ear to the cries of a sex abuse victim or a blind eye to the pain and tears of sex abuse victims and their families?

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October 21, 2006

Dear California Bishops (via email):

As recently reported by the Catholic News Agency and Renew America (www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/061019), as Catholic Bishops in California you have publicly criticized America magazine and attorney/law professor Marci Hamilton for an article on clergy abuse in the U.S. After all the facts revealed since California's 2003 Sex Abuse Law was passed, please make up your minds -- Devil or Angel.

Devil or Angel - who would launch a public letter whining about Catholic persecution in the sex abuse crisis?

Devil or Angel - who would point the finger at society's targeting of the Catholic Church with so-called preferential treatment to public institutions?

Devil or Angel - who would choose to hire expensive legal defense strategies to obstruct justice to those who were destroyed by clergy sex abuse crimes?

Public institutions guarantee due process of the law -- Catholic Bishops do not. Public institutions guarantee Whistleblower protections, provide checks and balances -- Catholic Bishops do not. Public institutions enforce workplace and labor laws, free from retaliation and discrimination -- Catholics Bishops do not.

California's 2003 Sex Abuse Law gives you a choice - a choice other Bishops nationwide fear making. Please make a choice -- become an Angel to the clergy sex abuse victims and families nationwide. Tell the truths to your fellow Bishops -- make a choice to learn and correct the many evils that destroyed so many lives.

Without justice there will never be peace and without peace, faith and our country's laws are empty.

Paschal's note: Catholic bishops were warned in the early 1980s of scandals and legal suits to come. They ignored the warning. They have refused repeatedly to face their own complicity and spinelessness in this terrrible tragedy --alienating so many from their home faith community. The Dallas times found that 2 out of 3 bishops sent these predator priests to other dioceses and parishes without any warning. Eugene Kennedy, Catholic psychologist has had much to say about the lack of grace and stonewalling of the Catholic bishops. Locally I tried 4 times to warn the Catholic bishop of scandals to come and the urgency of training in sexuality, dynamics of relationships, etc. but without any effect. I alerted the diocese to one predator priest with no thanks, and brought another mother of an abused daughter to the Bishop who had no interest in providing for ongoing healing of the family, the daughter or the mother, who had not been able to attend Catholic services for many years.

I would add to the author's concluding line above. When the Bishop of the diocese cannot demonstrate compassion and justice to those church officials have harmed, he hides behind his role as administrator and diminishes his God given function as the representative of Christ to his diocese and to each and every Catholic in his diocese.

Authors Website: www.catholics4justice.com

Authors Bio: As an amateur writer, my passion for the courage of clergy sex abuse victims has changed my life direction in many ways. We must never forget that our country's freedom of religion does not include sex abuse crimes, cover-ups and failures to report sex abuse to law enforcement. Your input is important and valued -- please listen to the personal stories of clergy sex abuse survivors - write to your state legislators and Church leaders expressing your views and concerns. May God Bless you always.

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