New York City, N.Y., Jun 17, 2010 / 01:08 am
While the clerical sexual abuse crisis may have permanently damaged millions of people’s image of the Catholic Church, a historical perspective suggests that the Church is not “finished” and has faced much harder times of corruption and danger, a Catholic pundit has written.
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat discussed the idea that the Catholic Church is “finished” in the Atlantic Monthly’s July/August 2010 issue, which featured “The 14 ¾ Biggest Ideas of the Year.”
“This was the year when the cover-up of priestly sex abuse, a long-simmering crisis for Catholicism, became something much, much bigger,” he wrote, noting various responses seeing it as another Watergate, a Waterloo, or Reformation.
Some said the Pope had to apologize, had to resign, or had to be arrested.