Abuse accused priests still working with children
WE are not surprised to hear that the Roman Catholic Church has been accused of not failing to implement guidelines intended to stop priests accused of child abuse from continuing to work with youngsters. The BBC has found that such priests are being allowed to continue working with children in the Church.
Clergymen who are guilty of such vile conduct should not only be totally barred from dealing with children but are also utterly unfit to carry out any religious function whatsoever in any properly established church.
Margaret Kennedy, founder and co-ordinator of Christian Survivors of Sexual Abuse, said of the Church of Rome that it is still trying to conceal the problem, despite previous scandals, and that its mechanisms for combatting the problem were inadequate. “There’s still quite a lot of pressure put on victims not to report,” she told BBC Radio. “We have a major problem with every diocese having a priest to look after the issues of child abuse.” She therefore underlined the need to have a lay person, qualified and skilled in dealing with child abuse, and not a priest, to deal with such cases, because those who have been abused by a priest really cannot think of going to another priest to talk about it.
The increasing evidence of this evil in Rome confirms that it is the duty of every Christian to pray that God would sweep away this corrupt religion and deliver its deluded devotees from its enslaving power.
Rome’s “forgiveness” for women who have had an abortion
CARDINAL Winning has recently given permission, with Vatican approval, to Scottish priests to give forgiveness to women who have had an abortion. Abortion has up till now been a “reserved sin”, which could be absolved only under special circumstances and by permission of a bishop. Why the change in policy? It sounds as if he is concerned about the number of women who are alienated from Rome as a result of this particular sin and hopes that this move will help to stem the flow from Rome.
But what right has the Cardinal to decide who should be forgiven and who should not? And may not those women feel distinctly uncomfortable who were previously refused forgiveness? No doubt they may. But they need not worry too much. They have lost nothing in being denied forgiveness by a priest. For the way of genuine forgiveness is always open, even to the chief of sinners. Christ has been exalted “to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance . . . and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31). The Jews were right to the extent of saying, “Who can forgive sins but God only?” They did not go far enough, for they would not receive the testimony of Christ’s miracles which proved that He was divine and that He therefore did have power to forgive sins. We are accordingly to go directly to God for forgiveness through Christ Jesus, “the one Mediator between God and men”. And the Bible certainly does not propose different mechanisms for different kinds of sinners.
The matter of forgiveness of sins is desperately serious and highlights the cancer at the centre of the whole Roman system it trades in the souls of men, women and children. One feels constrained to ask why the Pope was so adamant in refusing to excommunicate IRA terrorists while excommunicating multitudes of women for having an abortion. This is not to minimise the sin of abortion; it is to highlight the extraordinary morality of Rome. But doubtless a major factor was the desperate concern to maximise the Roman Catholic birthrate. When other concerns loom larger, the mechanism for providing forgiveness, it seems, can be altered at will. But, were Roman Catholic bishops and priests willing to listen to the Word of God, they would begin to direct sinners to God for forgiveness. And they would surely leave for ever such a corrupt organisation.
K.D.M.
Return to Table of Contents for The Free Presbyterian Magazine – April 1999