At a talk in Madison, Wisconsin Peter Kreeft said that pro-abort Catholics have done more damage to the Church than the sex abuse scandal. Kreeft’s speech focused on whether it is possible for Catholics to be liberals. When talking about abortion he said, “A Catholic cannot be today what is called a liberal about abortion. That’s obvious. That’s a ‘duh.’”
From The Cardinal Newman Society Blog:
During the Q&A, an audience member brought up the Kennedy political dynasty and how a group of leading theologians and Catholic college professors had met with Kennedy family members in the mid-1960s and came up with a way for Catholic politicians to support a pro-abortion rights platform with clear consciences.
Kreeft said these Catholic advisers “told the Kennedys how they could get away with murder.” Kreeft then made one of his boldest comments of the evening, suggesting the theologians who first convinced Democratic politicians they could support abortion rights and remain Catholic did more damage to the Catholic Church than pedophile priests.
“These were wicked people. These were dishonest people. These were people who, frankly, loved power more than they loved God,” Kreeft said. “Sorry, that’s just the way it is. In fact, I’d say these were even worse than the child molesters — though the immediate damage they did was not as obvious — because they did it deliberately, it wasn’t a sin of weakness. Sins of power are worse than sins of weakness. Cold, calculating sins — that’s straight from the devil.”
I think that pro-abortion (pro-choice) Catholics have caused more harm to the laity, internally, and that it will take a lengthy period of time for the Church to recover from this grave damage to the Body of Christ. I think that the priest sex abuse scandal has done more harm to the Church’s reputation in the short-term than pro-abort Catholic politicians.
It’s not really a contest though, is it?
No, it isn’t. But I sorta agreed with Kreeft’s assertion, and sorta didn’t. They are both evils and thus both should be repudiated. Since Kreeft had made his assertion I pondered on it and wondered whether he was correct or not.
I’d rather deal with them individually. From a pastoral perspective, I think a person should approach the hurt caused on an individual basis. Take, for example, Person A who has been abused. This can affect (is it effect?) the way in which he or she worships God, and the extent to which he or she can do so in the Church. I would not want to be responsible for erecting a barrier between a person and his or her experience of God’s love. It doesn’t matter how bad something else might be, if this is something I’ve done, there’s going to be a lot of healing needed.
It is useful, in academic sense, to step back and assess what has done more damage the Church and of what sort. That is a necessary precursor to addressing the problems on a wider scale. A pastor of, say, a single parish, necessarily has a different perspective – he is dealing with individuals and their concrete problems. His is not a Big Picture perspective. Rather, the Big Picture emerges from the aggregate of perspectives such as his.
Both are sad situations because they affect millions of innocent victims. Let’s pray for the victims and for those who consider themselves Catholic but are pro-abortion.
I agree. Excellent comment! Prayers for their healing and conversion.
It is difficult to say which is more damaging. Both are horrible situations, and both have done incalculable damage. While pro-abort Catholics definitely cause a lot of confusion (personally, I believe they cause more cover than confusion) particularly pro-abort Catholic politicians, the abuse scandal involved some of the Church heirarchy which puts it on a different level. It is one thing for a lay Catholic to say this or that about abortion. But when a bishop is involved in covering up abuse, it strikes at the Church’s very structure.
part of the problem is that the abuse scandal lessens the effectiveness of the bishops in dealing with pro-abort Catholics. It really isn’t a contest – it is in fact the opposite – one exacerbates the other.
@C Matt
I tend to agree with you that the abuse scandal exacerbated the problems with the other. But, that means the situation with the pro-aborts which was already out of control was worsened? But, I also don’t buy that a few bad apples in the bunch would necessarily put a cloud of suspicion over all of the bishops – at least as far as the laity is concerned. Those outside of the Church may view it that way.
Without reading all the responses, I have to agree 100% with Peter Kreeft. The deliberate, well-calculated, diabolical and cold-blooded lie that one can support abortion rights and remain Catholic is the worst Sin and has done the greatest harm to the Catholic Church for hundred and hundreds of years to come, compared with the sexually disordered Priests who abused children in the 1950′s and 1960′s. We also need to face the Truth. Over 99.9% of child-abuses occur in families, schools, children homes. The greatest offenders are fathers who brutalize their 6-year old daughters, brothers, uncles and close relatives who abuse both girl children and sodomize boy children, teachers who abuse their pupils, Orphanages’ staff who abuse their charges. The other highest percentage of unreported abusers are Pastors of Protestant Denominations who are married and even have a string of mistresses. However, for obvious hidden agendas the secular media has continue to harp on the very, very low percentage of fallen Catholic Priests who succumbed to their homosexual/phaedophilia disorders. We have to admit that Catholic Politicians who are supporting the anti-God gay co-habitations, the evil mass murder of unborn babies, euthanasia and embryonic stem-cell experiments and other bestialities are the greatest enemies of the Catholic Church and the harm they have brought about is enormous. These evils spell doom for the entire humankind and the world.
Nearly all of the comments on this blog dont make sense.