Levada fumbles

With Greece teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and Portugal, Spain, and Ireland not far behind, we are entitled to pose the question, “Is the Catholic Church too big to fail?” As tends to be the case for actors of comparable girth in the financial sector, the answer would seem to be, “Yes, probably.” But […]

cardinal-image_homepage_slot_1.jpgWith Greece teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and Portugal, Spain, and Ireland not far behind, we are entitled to pose the question, “Is the Catholic Church too big to fail?”

As tends to be the case for actors of comparable girth in the financial sector, the answer would seem to be, “Yes, probably.” But given the performance by those in charge over the past several months, you never know. Take, for instance, the following comment by Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the course of a mild inquisition by the News Hour’s Margaret Warner yesterday:

WARNER: So you don’t think it’s appropriate
that people hold the church to a higher standard? There is more focus
on the church?

LEVADA: That’s a fair question. I think we
should hold ourselves to a higher standard in the sense that priests are
given a long period of training selection. It’s a selective choice,
this is not something that one would have expected that a bishop or
anybody in the church, parents, none of us would have expected this, but
I think the causes we will see go back to changes in society that the
church and priests were not prepared for, particularly changes involving
how to be a celibate person in a time of the sexual revolution, that’s
one of the causes I’d say.

Huh? The church is to be held to a higher standard because priests get more training? Except that until recently the church was unprepared and so priests didn’t get more training? This is the best the Vatican’s top official for abuse cases can manage?


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