I would have bet my last penny and even my life that John Guillaumier would throw in, for good measure, a letter about the film “Spotlight”. And he did it with a vengeance, but it was already an open secret that child abuse was rampant in the diocese of Boston.
To counterbalance this festering transgression, the call for mercy abounds in every Mass celebrated, starting from the Confiteor and the Kyrie Eleison in the liturgy of the Word and ending with various invocations for mercy “Have mercy on us we beseech you, grant us the gift of eternal life”; “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. “O Lord, do not look on our sins, but rather look on the faith of your Church” and the moving Agnus Dei in the liturgy of the Eucharist. This incessant humility from sunrise to sunset, matches perfectly the height and depth of the love of the Church towards Christ.
And this is surely pleasing to God.
While I am sure that Mr Guillaumier cannot gauge the intensity of such love and humility, I can furnish him with a rough idea of all the Mea Culpas of the last three Popes, which amount to a staggering total of 32.
Pope John Paul II – 26 times, too much to enlist the circumstances.
Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis – two and four occasions respectively.
2008 – Mistakes committed against the gypsies.
2010 – Paedophilia by the clergy.
2014 – Sexual abuses by priests.
2014 – Complicity with racist laws against the Pentecostals.
2015 – Historic persecutions and killings of Waldensian Christians.
2016 – Past persecution of Protestants.
What a humble and meek Church! I might as well add the adjective “humble” to the other centuries-old portfolio attributes of the one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”
Behind the doors of the Catholic Church only the grace of the most perfect sanctity permeates. This emanates from the little Host, the throne of mercy and love radiating the fullness of Christ’s humanity and divinity. The dirty stuff, sexual abuses and other transgressions happen outside.
John Azzopardi,
Zabbar