Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Dispatch from the Front: What Kind of Leadership Is This?

 

A response of a reader (the username is Associate) to the National Catholic Reporter article to which I linked yesterday, about the despair of many Irish survivors of childhood clerical sexual abuse following the recent meeting of the pope with the Irish bishops:
What kind of leadership is this? John Paul, the original master of the sex abuse cover-up, adds 5 new decades to the Rosary instead of responding to the needs of his worldwide flock. Benedict, co-conspirator in the cover up revises the Missal instead of acting to resolve the situation.

What kind of leadership is this?  Hurting people asking to be recognized as human beings, and we get new decades for the Rosary and priests turning their backs on the people of God at prayer.

The answer to the question is, It's certainly not pastoral leadership.

It has nothing at all to do with the Good Shepherd and how he instructed his followers to deal with the wounded members of the flock.