Vatican finally getting it a little bit?

From Votf:
Vatican finally getting it a little bit?


If what we read in the media is accurate, there appears to be some change in tone emanating from the Number 2 person in the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. He has gone in a few days time from saying in a British newspaper that the Church has already "responded with great dignity" to the clergy sexual abuse scandal -- and that the "clamour created in the U.S. around this scandal is really unbearable" -- to telling the Associated Press yesterday: "[Pope Benedict] will try to open the path of healing and reconciliation" in response to the abuse crisis that has caused "so much suffering for the victims, for the families of the victims and above all to the church ..."

(You can see the stories at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/07/wpope107.xml and at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040801793.html.)

Perhaps the voices of the laity, amplified by the media, are once again resonating with Church officials: Cardinal Bertone’s interview with Associated Press coincidentally occurred the same day Voice of the Faithful’s full page ad appeared in the New York Times.

Of course, the challenge is whether Church leaders can effectively address the unresolved issues of the clergy sexual abuse scandal while also embracing full lay participation in the Church and providing complete financial accountability and transparency. Meeting that challenge could, indeed, transform the Church into one that is governed by compassion, informed by justice, empowered by equality, and animated to act collegially.