{"id":260,"date":"2010-09-19T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2010-09-19T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/popewatch-does-being-pope-mean-always-having-to-say-youre-sorry-for-clergy-abuse.html"},"modified":"2010-09-19T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2010-09-19T14:30:00","slug":"popewatch-does-being-pope-mean-always-having-to-say-youre-sorry-for-clergy-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/popewatch-does-being-pope-mean-always-having-to-say-youre-sorry-for-clergy-abuse.html","title":{"rendered":"PopeWatch: Does Being Pope Mean Always Having to Say You&#8217;re Sorry (For Clergy Abuse)?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Remember that <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/06\/religion-reporting-critics-blast-magazine-covers-times-pope-piece-newsweeks-saint-sarah-palin-story.html\"><em>Time<\/em> magazine cover story&nbsp;I blogged about <\/a>a few months ago, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/world\/article\/0,8599,1992171-2,00.html\">Why Being Pope Means Never Having to Say You&#8217;re Sorry<\/a>?&#8221; Pope Benedict seems to feel otherwise, given the number of apologies he has made lately &#8212; including two big ones during his papal visit to the United Kingdom, which concluded today as <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20100919\/ap_on_re_eu\/eu_pope_britain\">&#8220;a great success<\/a>&#8221; &#8212; for the clergy sex abuse scandal.<\/p>\n<p>Some links, including two stories by top Catholic reporter <a href=\"http:\/\/ncronline.org\/blogs\/john-l-allen-jr\">John L. Allen Jr<\/a>.:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/ncronline.org\/blogs\/ncr-today\/pope-apologizes-unspeakable-crimes-sex-abuse\">Pope apologizes for &#8216;unspeakable crimes&#8217; of sex abuse <\/a>(National Catholic Reporter)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/idUSTRE68F0YD20100918\">Pope apologizes on abuse as thousands protest in London<\/a> (Reuters)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/meeting-with-abuse-victims-pope-benedict-expresses-deep-shame\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+catholicnewsagency\/dailynews+(CNA+Daily+News)\">Meeting with abuse victims, Pope Benedict expresses &#8216;deep shame&#8217; <\/a>(Catholic News Agency)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/ncronline.org\/blogs\/ncr-today\/pope-calls-church-be-humble-model-abuse\">Pope calls church to be &#8216;humble&#8217; model on abuse <\/a>(National Catholic Reporter)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.getreligion.org\/2010\/09\/really-really-really-strong-apology\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+getreligion\/DmXm+(GetReligion)\">Really, really, <em>really <\/em>strong apology<\/a> (GetReligion)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My two cents:&nbsp;The real headline here isn&#8217;t&nbsp;about&nbsp;<em>saying <\/em>sorry &#8212; but rather, <em>showing <\/em>it by making&nbsp;definitive changes in church policy. (It&#8217;s not as catchy.)&nbsp;In this case,&nbsp;victims and their advocates are wary of even strong&nbsp;papal apologies; they want to see the church&#8217;s child abusers and their protectors proactively dealt with&nbsp;(both by the Vatican and secular authorities), and it&#8217;s going to take time to convince them that Pope Benedict&#8217;s actions speak as loud as&nbsp;his recent words.<\/p>\n<p>As Allen wrote, <a href=\"http:\/\/ncronline.org\/blogs\/ncr-today\/benedicts-box-talking-about-crisis\">in his take on the &#8216;sorry&#8217; situation<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The box Benedict is in would appear to be this: If he stops talking about the crisis, he would likely be accused of ducking the question or artificially pretending that the problem is solved. If he keeps issuing roughly the same apology, he&#8217;ll aggravate his enemies and may frustrate a growing share of his allies.<\/p>\n<p>That would seem to leave the pope with two options. Either he must figure out something new to say, or he has to supplement his words with actions &#8211; some new policy, some new spiritual initiative, or some new gesture of accountability, which would lend his words new significance.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>What do you think? Check back for updates, and share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>subscribe to Belief Beat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/a>and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember that Time magazine cover story&nbsp;I blogged about a few months ago, &#8220;Why Being Pope Means Never Having to Say You&#8217;re Sorry?&#8221; Pope Benedict seems to feel otherwise, given the number of apologies he has made lately &#8212; including two big ones during his papal visit to the United Kingdom, which concluded today as &#8220;a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>PopeWatch: Does Being Pope Mean Always Having to Say You&#039;re Sorry (For Clergy Abuse)? - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/popewatch-does-being-pope-mean-always-having-to-say-youre-sorry-for-clergy-abuse.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PopeWatch: Does Being Pope Mean Always Having to Say You&#039;re Sorry (For Clergy Abuse)? - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Remember that Time magazine cover story&nbsp;I blogged about a few months ago, &#8220;Why Being Pope Means Never Having to Say You&#8217;re Sorry?&#8221; Pope Benedict seems to feel otherwise, given the number of apologies he has made lately &#8212; including two big ones during his papal visit to the United Kingdom, which concluded today as &#8220;a&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/popewatch-does-being-pope-mean-always-having-to-say-youre-sorry-for-clergy-abuse.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-19T14:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PopeWatch: Does Being Pope Mean Always Having to Say You're Sorry (For Clergy Abuse)? - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/popewatch-does-being-pope-mean-always-having-to-say-youre-sorry-for-clergy-abuse.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PopeWatch: Does Being Pope Mean Always Having to Say You're Sorry (For Clergy Abuse)? - Belief Beat","og_description":"Remember that Time magazine cover story&nbsp;I blogged about a few months ago, &#8220;Why Being Pope Means Never Having to Say You&#8217;re Sorry?&#8221; Pope Benedict seems to feel otherwise, given the number of apologies he has made lately &#8212; including two big ones during his papal visit to the United Kingdom, which concluded today as &#8220;a&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/popewatch-does-being-pope-mean-always-having-to-say-youre-sorry-for-clergy-abuse.html","og_site_name":"Belief Beat","article_published_time":"2010-09-19T14:30:00+00:00","author":"Nicole Neroulias","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/popewatch-does-being-pope-mean-always-having-to-say-youre-sorry-for-clergy-abuse.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/09\/popewatch-does-being-pope-mean-always-having-to-say-youre-sorry-for-clergy-abuse.html","name":"PopeWatch: Does Being Pope Mean Always Having to Say You're Sorry (For Clergy Abuse)? 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