VATICAN CITY (EWTN News/CNA) — Correcting the behavior of those gone astray is an essential part of Christian life, said Pope Benedict XVI in his Sunday Angelus address Sept. 4.
“This approach is called fraternal correction: It is not a reaction to injury suffered, but is moved by love for one’s brother,” said the Pope to pilgrims gathered at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo.
The Pope made his comments in the light of the Gospel in which Jesus suggests that “if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.”
The text of the Gospel “tells us that brotherly love also involves a sense of mutual responsibility,” said the Pope, “so if my brother sins against me, I must use love towards him and, first of all, speak to him personally, pointing out that what he has said or done is not good.”
The Pope quoted St. Augustine of Hippo, who said Christians cannot be indifferent to the “severe wound” a fellow believer may have inflicted upon themselves through sin.
However, St. Augustine also stressed that any subsequent fraternal correction has to be animated by love and not revenge, insisting “you have to forget the hurt you have received, not the wound of your brother.”
If a fraternal correction is rebuffed, said the Pope, then Christians should follow the advice of Jesus: Seek the witness of others and, if necessary, the sanction of the wider Church.
“All this indicates that there is a shared responsibility in the way of Christian life,” said Pope Benedict. “Everyone, aware of their limitations and defects, is called to welcome fraternal correction and help others with this particular service.”
The Pope suggested this was a reminder of the communal nature of the Christian faith, as confirmed by the subsequent promise of Christ in the Gospel: that “if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”
For, while “personal prayer is certainly important, indeed essential,” said the Pope “the Lord assures his presence in the community” at prayer because it “reflects the reality of the Triune God, the perfect communion of love.”
Thus, concluded the Pope, through communal prayer and fraternal correction, “which requires a lot of humility and simplicity of heart,” we can journey together towards God as “a community truly united in Christ.”
Benjamin Wiker: Benedict XVI: Doctor of the Church
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As Pope Benedict XVI speaks about the importance of fraternal correction, I wonder if he is willing to personally accept fraternal correction from anyone?
As a Catholic physician who has met many who have been sexually abused by priests, I believe that Pope Benedict XVI, and others in the hierarchy who have allowed priest sexual abuse to flourish worldwide, are in need of fraternal correction from the People of God!
Pope Benedict XVI does not seem to want to be accountable for his role in this tragic scandal. How sad that the leader of the Roman Catholic Church chooses to hide behind a claim to diplomatic immunity, so that he will not have to open the Vatican documents, on worldwide cases of priest sexual abuse, to investigation by police and by lawyers.
The diplomatic immunity of the Pope is being challenged by G. Robertson, Queen’s Counsel, human rights attorney, and judge at the United Nations for crimes against humanity. Mr Robertson calls the sexual abuse of children by priests “soul-murder” and I agree.
I ask myself, how is it that the Pope and many in the hierarchy are focused on nuances of canon law and not
on the damage that priest sexual abuse has had on the victims? One answer that I come up with is that living in an all adult male environment, with little or no healthy close relationships with women nor with children, and not having the responsibility of a family, have blunted the emotions of the celibate clergy.
Instead of acting as Jesus would, and as responsible parents would, these celibates have been stunted in their psychosexual development to the point that protecting one another is more important than protecting children
from abuse.
I do not think that there will be a healthier Roman Catholic Church until the leaders are forced to change by outside forces, such as civil law, making the Pope and other members of the hierarchy accountable for what they have allowed to continue to happen to innocent children, as they protect their brother priests and bishops.
The whole structure of the church has to change and we lay people need to have a voice in our church. Celibate men have limited life experience and would greatly benefit by listening to and being attentive to the sense of the faithful, as was the norm in the early church.
Sincerely, Dr Rosemary Eileen McHugh, Chicago, USA, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Here’s a fraternal correction to you , those sexual abuses are being taking care of and one more thing, Neither the Pope and the Priest are allowed to be marry not now not ever and they all know before they make their vows, so if they commit those horrible crimes , they will be judge by them. There’s human mistakes everywhere , not just within the Catholic Church, so if you have to make a fraternal correction do it to the real criminal not just pointing fingers in general.
Gina
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