  |
||||||
|
Rome, April 29-30 The End Days Contact has been made and letters from survivors provided to the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith, the Vatican Curia office formerly headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. It is to this Congregation that cases are sent for the defrocking of priests against whom there are credible allegations of sexual abuse of children and minors. We have expressed our serious concern that the cases need to move with all deliberate speed and the crisis of the scandal itself receive priority billing within the Congregation. We have also expressed our desire for a continuing dialogue. Conversations in Rome with Vaticanisti, those who are themselves players inside the Vatican and who are therefore very aware of how the internal operations work, have provided advice on how to proceed with communication with the Vatican that can be effective. Details will be provided in the May edition of In the Vineyard. As I leave the Eternal City, privileged to have been here to make our presence known in these historic days, Pope Benedict XVI is moving from the room he occupied at Saint Martha's Guesthouse during the conclave to the more spacious papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace. As he settles in, perhaps a piano will become part of the furnishings in this house of popes and the strains of Mozart might be heard in the Square. As we pursue our call for him to meet with an international delegation of survivors, let us pray that the music of our desire for justice and his to be a leader who governs in the Lord’s way may indeed become a harmony that cures the laryngitis that now affects the Church’s moral voice. A last look at the majesty of St. Peter’s Square: Gulls that swoop like doves swirl between the statues, the colonnade and past the Egyptian obelisk that is as old as the Lord’s time on the earth. The dome glistens. The faithful mingle in the Square. The Church in this Easter Season has come through the days of papal death and resurrection to the life of a new papacy. Voice of the Faithful came here to bear witness and we have. We leave with knowledge. As a gift of the Holy Spirit, it is more precious than all the treasure inside the Vatican Museums. Come, Holy Spirit, blow fresh freezes of hope into Your Church. Set us afire in a new Pentecost. On to Indianapolis! |
||
| |