So here is the final

So here is the final communique on the Pope’s meeting with the American cardinals. “Attention was drawn to the fact that almost all the cases involved adolescents and therefore were not cases of true pedophilia.” Apart from procedures for dealing with particular bad priests, the main practical points are:

a) the Pastors of the Church need clearly to promote the correct moral teaching of the Church and publicly to reprimand individuals who spread dissent and groups which advance ambiguous approaches to pastoral care;

b) a new and serious Apostolic Visitation of seminaries and other institutes of formation must be made without delay, with particular emphasis on the need for fidelity to the Church’s teaching, especially in the area of morality, and the need for a deeper study of the criteria of suitability of candidates to the priesthood.

So it looks like the reformation is more likely to be a conservative than a liberal one.

Posted by Jim Kalb at April 26, 2002 07:19 AM | Send