World Touch
SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS: Need To Abandon Clericalism
The sexual abuse crisis inundating the whole Church like a tsunami has the potential to cause long-term damage, chaos and even a schism, says a bishop in Australia. “It is the biggest crisis since the Reformation and it exposes the ideological conflict that runs deeply through the length and breadth of the universal Church,” Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen (in photo) of Parramatta said.
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Dec 2018Bishop Long, who heads the diocese northwest of Sydney, said the Church needs prophetic voices, even voices from the margins and from outside, to keep its leaders honest, transparent and accountable. “We cannot afford to let the momentum for cultural and structural change in the Church fizzle out,” he said.
“In my opinion, we really need to once and for all jettison the clericalist model of the Church with its by-product of the exclusive clerical club. It has served us well beyond its use-by date,” said Bishop Long, former assistant general of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual.