The Pope's Address to the U.S. Bishops and their Reaction

For the complete text of the Pope's address to the U.S. Bishops, you can find that online at Catholic News Service. Following the Pope's address I spoke with some lay people in the audience as well as a number of bishops, asking their reaction to the address.

Veronica O'Donnell of Reston, Va. enjoyed the speech.

"I was surprised by his facility with the language," O'Donnell said. "I liked his clarity and that he's not afraid of the thorny issues."

"I'm glad that he didn't mention Iraq," said Joanne Meredith, a volunteer at the Basilica. "His speech helped me to understand him better."

Overall, the bishops I spoke with interpreted the Pope's speech as both a support and a challenge.

"More than half of the message was positive," said Austin Bishop Gregory Aymond, who serves as chairman of the United States' Bishops Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People. "Yet, he also challenged us, as a good prophet should do. He challenged us on the poor, the homeless, the marginalized. He challenged us on immigration and on issues of life. He was clear in saying we're doing a lot, but we can do more."

"I was very pleased that he touched on themes that he has already stressed previously in his pontificate, especially the themes of secularism, relativism, and the deteriorating moral values of our time," said Bishop Victor Galeone of St. Augustine, Florida. "He treated them in a non-threatening way."

"One phrase that I wrote down had to do with this notion of the family and the Gospel of life," said Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph. "He said that the bishops had to make a 'determined, collective response to promote the Gospel of life, and at least part of what he said was about the primacy of the family. It seemed to me that it could be intepreted to gain a greater unanimity in our hearts and to, as a group, make a stand. I felt that was a challenge from the Holy Father. He wasn't denying that we haven't done important things, but perhaps was saying that we should get together and do more because we are the leaders of the Church in the U.S."

For the most part, the bishops seemed supportive of the Pope's decision to again tackle the issue of the sexual abuse crisis. Questioning whether too much attention might engulf the majority of the Pope's coverage on this one issue, Bishop Aymond disagreed.

"I'm very grateful he talked about the crisis," said Bishop Aymond. "Some would say that it's over, but it's not over until it doesn't exist anymore."

Bishop Aymond said that he wasn't surprised that the topic has come up twice over the past two days. "I'm not surprised. The Holy Father gets it. He has been deeply wounded by this," said Bishop Aymond. "He was reading these cases before he was Holy Father. He knew the pain. He was speaking from his own experience. Where there is sin or poison, there is a need for purification."

-- Tim Drake

Comments

[Joe]

On April 17th, I watched Anderson Cooper's interview with two men who were abused by a priest when they were young boys. These men had a private conversation with Pope Benedict XVI that day.

For the first time in many years they experienced hope...hope that the Catholic Church will finally take full responsibility for their negligence in removing these perverted priests and those who abetted them.

The victims, their families, and every Catholic (plus those of other faiths) needed to see justice done. Every pastor or bishop who transferred these perverts to other parishes should be defrocked.

Yet Boston's Cardinal Law, with his criminal actions of assigning known perverted priests to other parishes, was not ousted by the Church. He is now the "archpriest" of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

Our present Pope has a hugh task to accomplish if he wants to bring credibility back to the Catholic Church.