John Allen: Santo Padre, io faccio la domanda in inglese, se posso, e forse, se fosse possibile, se potessimo avere una frase, una parola in inglese, saremmo molto riconoscenti. La domanda: la Chiesa che troverà negli Stati Uniti è una Chiesa grande, una Chiesa vivace, ma anche una Chiesa sofferente, in un certo senso, soprattutto a causa della recente crisi dovuta agli abusi sessuali. La gente americana sta aspettando una parola da Lei, un messaggio da Lei su questa crisi. Quale sarà il Suo messaggio per questa Chiesa sofferente?Benedetto XVI: "It is a great suffering for the Church in the United States and for the Church in general, for me personally, that this could happen. If I read the history of these events, it is difficult for me to understand how it was possible for priests to fail in this way the mission to give healing, to give God’s love to these children. I am ashamed and we will do everything possible to ensure that this does not happen in future. I think we have to act on three levels: the first is at the level of justice and the political level. I will not speak at this moment about homosexuality: this is another thing. We will absolutely exclude paedophiles from the sacred ministry; it is absolutely incompatible and who is really guilty of being a paedophile cannot be a priest. So at this first level we can do justice and help the victims, because they are deeply affected; these are the two sides of justice: one, that paedophiles cannot be priests and the other, to help in any possible way the victims. Then, there’s a pastoral level. The victims will need healing and help and assistance and reconciliation: this is a big pastoral engagement and I know that the bishops and the priests and all Catholic people in the United States will do whatever possible to help, to assist, to heal. We have made a visitation of the seminaries and we will do all that is possible in the education of seminarians for a deep spiritual, human and intellectual formation for the students. Only sound persons can be admitted to the priesthood and only persons with a deep personal life in Christ and who have a deep sacramental life. So, I know that the bishops and directors of seminarians will do all possible to have a strong, strong discernment because it is more important to have good priests than to have many priests. This is also our third level, and we hope that we can do and we have done and we will do in the future all that is possible to heal these wounds." 

John Allen: Santo Padre, io faccio la domanda in inglese, se posso, e forse, se fosse possibile, se potessimo avere una frase, una parola in inglese, saremmo molto riconoscenti. La domanda: la Chiesa...leggi tutto