Just Another " Talk Fest " !

That four day summit convened by the Pope to settle sexual abuse within the Catholic church disappointed most people.   This is a scandal that seems ever widening and it started with Pope Francis explaining what he hoped would be achieved.   It ended with no such concrete measures being put in place.

In reality, all that is really required is for the church to obey the law.  If a priest has sex with an underage child or practises sodomy those accusations need to be reported to the police for investigation.  If that investigation leads to a prosecution and a conviction it is up to the church to remove that priest from clerical duties.  Civil society demands that such a priest be sacked because he is clearly unfit for the job.

A bishop who fails to report such an accusation to the police is also guilty of a crime. This whole scandal of coverup and moving erring priests to distant parishes has been for protecting the good name of the church at the expense of the victims.  In that respect, the church has believed that its divinity places it above mere civil law.

To most people, the Catholic church is a mystery.  Even Catholics are unsure of where power resides within the walls of the Vatican but whoever is elected Pope is clearly the nominated leader and for centuries that has been unquestioned.  This summit now raises troubling questions.  Exactly where does power lay within the Vatican  ?

The Pope has clearly stated what he wishes to be put in place - and that did not happen.  This was at a gathering of senior bishops from all parts of the world and it seems that they rejected his authoritarian stance.   There is another convention of bishops known as the curia and it is unclear if they were integrated into this summit, or where they stand in the panoply of power.

It seems quite clear that at least in this past century the Catholic church has shed much of the domination that it had over the laws of many countries.  In both Ireland and the Philippines that law of the church and the law of the land marched in lockstep.  Catholics have gone to the ballot box to ease those restrictions in much of the world and now many predominantly Catholic countries encourage contraception and approve of same sex marriage.

This failure to enact the revisions that Pope Francis desired may have fatally undermined the authority of the Papal office.  For over two thousand years the Catholic church has been a feared institution which crushed dissent.   It was at times vicious and overbearing and quite capable of starting holy wars, but those powers have diminished and this summit seems to illustrate that the power of the Pope is now limited.

Failure to curb the sexual sins of the priesthood can only further diminish the church in the eyes of it members.