COMMENTS

Wordpress (7)
  • Swift Sue 6 years

    You can pray all you like but it takes actions to unite the Church  & cement new practices. I see nothing coming from the hierarchy as to how we move forward.  Start consulting the congregation & ask for our input.

    • Carmel 6 years

      This action of victim praying for the Archbishop on his knees in humility is a way forward. The victim has suffered great pain but has been able to forgive by the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of our Saviour Jesus Christ and can now stand by her church.
      Individually we can be humble and contrite before our God begging forgiveness. The Archbishop demonstrated this humility.
      The Archdiocese is endearing right now to have the necessary guidelines in place that this will never happen again,
      Please pray for all victims.

    • Carmel 6 years

      This action of victim praying for the Archbishop on his knees in humility is a way forward. The victim has suffered great pain but has been able to forgive by the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of our Saviour Jesus Christ and can now stand by her church. Individually we can be humble and contrite before our God begging forgiveness. The Archbishop demonstrated this humility. The Archdiocese is endearing right now to have the necessary guidelines in place that this will never happen again, Please pray for all victims.

  • Mary 6 years

    My God how great Thou art. Amen

  • Anne 6 years

    Thankyou and bless you dear survivor for such a courageous and generous act of forgiveness, mercy AND blessing. Thankyou and bless you dear Archbishop for your humble and heartfelt apology.   
    2Chronicles7:14

  • Maria 6 years

    I don’t think it is ok for the Church to put it on survivors of sex abuse to forgive and pray for the Church. That is just adding another burden on people already over-burdened. It is ok for survivors to be angry towards the Church. Survivors do not owe the Church their prayers or their forgiveness. It is not for the Church to be ‘pleasantly surprised’ when a survivor chooses to pray for the Church or to forgive those who abused her. That is her choice alone, after having walked the hard journey of recovery and healing. It is not for the Church to expect it. Nor is it for the Church to use the narrative of Calvary and Resurrection in such a way. Resurrection belongs to the survivors. In their own time and at their own pace. It is not for the Church to force the narrative of Resurrection on survivors of abuse and injustice and oppression in order to lessen the Church’s discomfort at being held to account and having to starkly face the effect of its crimes on those it was tasked with protecting. Asking for forgiveness and absolutions from those who have survived the horrors of child sex abuse is not a substitute for justice and for freedom from abuse in the first place.

  • Louise 6 years

    A point of clarification on your first paragraph.

    Many of us have been distressed and dismayed in recent weeks, not by the conviction and sentencing of the cardinal but by learning of the painful story of our brother who testified and our brother who died. We are distressed by the suffering of two more children among hundreds in Australia – thousands worldwide – at the hands of the clergy that continues to resist necessary change. We are dismayed that the advice to not talk openly and directly and the doubt cast on victims’ stories reinforces the cycle of shame that destroys lives.

    It’s nice that the Archbishop felt uplifted. So many of us in the laity feel despondent. We still have faith and hope in God; we have none in the institutional church.