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CHI
RESTERÀ A PARLARE ED ASCOLTARE?
Editoriale: La Chiesa Cattolica
[...] Il Centro per le Ricerche Applicate all'Apostolato della Georgetown
University afferma, che sono state chiuse circa 700 parrocchie in tutto il
paese [USA] tra il 1995 e il 2007, e si prevedono ulteriori tagli. Il numero di
preti e di suore continua a scendere. Nel Sud Jersey, si stima che entro il
2015 rimarranno solo 85 preti in esercizio che seguiranno 450.000 fedeli. Nei
prossimi 20 anni, il numero dei preti diocesani attivi sarà dimezzato fino a
toccare appena 11.500 unità. Ci sono circa 19.000 parrocchie, immaginate il
grosso gap che si creerà.
La chiesa ha contributo all'evidenziarsi di questa crisi, insistendo su
discipline antiche come il celibato (compreso il rifiuto di permettere ai preti
di sposarsi) e la non ammissione delle donne nel clero. Nessuna di queste
pratiche era contemplata da Gesù. Ci furono tradizioni locali che poi vennero
tramutate in dottrina. Ora
invece contribuiscono ad affossarla.
Gli scandali degli abusi sessuali hanno distrutto la fiducia
nell'istituzione e nei suoi ministri. I leader ecclesiastici hanno contribuito
a questo sfacelo attraverso la loro lentezza di reazione; nascondendo o
minimizzando il problema oppure facendo muro. E' vero, l'Arcidiocesi di
Philadelphia ha rivisto i propri programmi di prevenzione ed assistenza alle
vittime (per un totale di 144 vittime accertate), stanziando circa un milione
di dollari da gennaio 2007 per la consulenza o altri servizi correlati.
Dall'altra parte, generalmente, si rifiuta di rivelare dove si trovano i
preti criminali.
Ancora oggi c'è parecchia gente che ama la Chiesa Cattolica, e non parliamo
solo di cattolici. Conserva una autorità acquisita nel tempo, un allineamento
fedele e spesso pericoloso a presunti standard comportamentali. (C'è da restare
parecchio perplessi, ad esempio pensando all'Inquisizione o a risposte ambigue
riservate al Nazismo nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale).
I leader ecclesiastici regolarmente si intromettono nella politica pubblica
(la pena di morte), in dibattiti di ordine etico (la ricerca sulle cellule
staminali), e sulla moralità personale. Il più visibile tra i leader è
ovviamente il papa, padre della chiesa.
In un mondo violento, nel degrado ambientale, nella mancanza di valori
coerenti, è confortante che da qualche parte ci sia una famiglia, che ispirata
dai più alti ideali di santità, cerchi di emulare quel tipo di vita diffondendo
messaggi di pace, responsabilità, limpidezza morale e, soprattutto, fede.
Oggi, il dibattito (almeno sui giornali o sui media) tra credenti e non
credenti infuria. Centinaia di milioni di persone nel mondo, e milioni ne
verranno in futuro, crederanno in un Dio dell'Universo e in un Cristo che
interviene nella storia umana per trasmettere un messaggio d'amore. E lo
impareranno e lo vivranno attraverso questa chiesa.
Ci potrebbe essere un messaggio peggiore. Ma la sfida per i cattolici resta: chi
diffonderà questo messaggio e chi lo ascolterà?
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080413_Editorial__The_Catholic_Church.html
(Traduzione
di Stefania Salomone)
Editorial:
The Catholic Church
Who will be left
to speak and hear?
[Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the United States marks a time of celebrations
and challenges for the church.
The pope is scheduled to arrive in Washington on Tuesday, and spend three
days in New York before returning to Rome. He will turn 81 on Wednesday.
Today, Cardinal Justin Rigali will mark the close of the Archdiocese of
Philadelphia's 200th anniversary celebration with a Mass at Villanova
University.
The celebrations affirm the roots and impact of the church here, but also
signal the challenges at hand.
The pope has a hard act to follow in John Paul II. The late pope was
charismatic, assertive and beloved, and deeply influenced world affairs.
Benedict, by contrast, has maintained a lower-profile, working instead behind
the scenes to put his own stamp on church affairs.
In America, the church holds a puzzling position. It remains large and
respected, but is withering and weathering attacks from both outside and
within.
In many older, urban areas, parishes and schools are closing or merging.
Bishop Joseph Galante just announced a big restructuring of the Camden Diocese
that will probably close parishes in six South Jersey counties.
In Philadelphia, three Catholic parish schools in Port Richmond plan to
merge into one. At the same time, the archdiocese is adapting to population
shifts with plans to build two high schools in Bucks and Montgomery Counties.
Maybe the biggest challenge of all is this: What does it mean to be a
Catholic in the United States of 2008?
The Catholic Church is the largest single
faith in the country and in the world. Locally, as in many areas throughout the
country, there are many Catholics, but too many of them no longer attend church
regularly. And Catholic high schools and universities everywhere soft-pedal
religion and hard-peddle "values" as a branding strategy.]
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University
says that nearly 700 parishes closed across the country from 1995 to 2007, with
more cutbacks coming. The numbers of priests and sisters continue to decline.
In South Jersey, it's estimated that by 2015 there will be only 85 active
priests to serve 450,000 Catholics. Nationwide, in the next 20 years, the
number of active diocesan priests will drop in half to 11,500. There are about
19,000 parishes, so that translates to a huge gap.
The church has helped create this crisis by insisting on ancient
disciplines such as priestly celibacy (including its refusal to allow priests
to marry) and the bar against women in the clergy. None of these practices was
expressly enjoined by Jesus. All were local traditions that ossified into
doctrine. Now, they're helping strangle it.
Sexual-abuse scandals have destroyed trust in the institution and its
ministers. Church leaders have contributed to this fiasco in being slow to
react; hiding or minimizing the problem; or stonewalling. True, the
Philadelphia Archdiocese has overhauled its prevention and victim-assistance
program (for a reported 144 victims), devoting $1 million since January 2007 on
counseling and other services. On the other hand, generally it refuses to say
where the disgraced and defrocked perps are now.
Yet many people love the Catholic Church, and not just Catholics. It
retains an authority earned by long, loyal and often dangerous adherence to a
high standard of belief and conduct. (There's much to be ashamed of, too,
including the Inquisition and an often ambiguous response to Nazism in World
War II.)
Church leaders regularly weigh in on public policy (the death penalty),
ethical debate (stem-cell research), and personal morality. Most visible of all
is the pope, father of the church.
In a world of violence, environmental degradation, and lack of coherent
values, it's comforting that somewhere there's a family that, inspired by the
holiest of lives, seeks to emulate that life and spread its message of peace,
responsibility, moral clarity - and above all, belief.
Today, the debate (at least in the journals and op-ed pages) between belief
and unbelief rages afresh. Still, hundreds of millions all over the world, and
millions and millions to come, will come to believe in a God in the universe
and a Christ that intervenes in human history to spread understanding and love.
And they will learn that and live that through this church.
You could have a worse message. The challenge for all Catholics, though,
remains: Who will tell this message, and who will hear?
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080413_Editorial__The_Catholic_Church.html
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