Letter sent to the Editor, St Petersburg Times, March 13, 2000
To the Editor,
RE: Pope apologizes for sins of church, March 13, 2000
The nature of the pope's statement is worthy of commendation but also comments:
-he confirms many of the kinds of misdeeds on behalf of the Church which Church officials previously strongly defended or denied;
-the Church's misdeeds generally were justified as doing what God wanted it to do; the pope's apologies now implies the Church misunderstood what God wanted it to do, or God had nothing to do with any of it;
-although the Church condoned many of the misdeeds of its followers, the pope never faults the Church as he considers the Church incapable of doing any wrong, he faults its followers, the Church's children;
-although the misdeeds were done to people, he asks the God the Church helped create and mold for forgiveness; he should ask for forgiveness from all the people who have been hurt by the misdeeds of the Church; when he goes to Israel, for example, he should ask the Israelis for forgiveness for the centuries of hatred of Jews preached by the Church and the Church's destructive role in the Holocaust;
-the massacres of Indians and other natives in the Americas and mistreatment of women in the name of the Church finally is acknowledged by the pope;
-he should highlight sins he committed during his reign.
As the Church's supreme religious leader and God's spokesperson, the pope now would be
expected to report God forgives the Church for its many misdeeds and pronounce its
penance. Cleansed, the Church would be able to continue its march toward making the
Roman Catholic Church the religion of the USA and of the world as the pope said God
wants it to be.
James M. O'Hara