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Pope's visit may include expressions of regret for abuse scandal
Americans who pay even passing attention to news in any form next week will have a new mental picture of the best-known figure in Christendom, either waving at the faithful packed into Nationals or Yankee stadiums, visiting ground zero in New York, or riding in his Popemobile past the White House, if all goes as scheduled.
While in the United States, the pope will not only speak to thousands of Catholics, but will meet with a variety of religious leaders, including two LDS apostles.
Elders M. Russell Ballard and Quentin L. Cook have been assigned by the church's First Presidency to attend an interfaith meeting in New York, according to Scott Trotter, a church spokesman.
"There are no expectations of a private meeting with the pope. There will be many Catholic clergy there," Trotter told the Deseret Morning News on Friday.
After three years as head of the worldwide Catholic Church, much of the sexual abuse scandal that rocked American Catholicism to its core in recent years has worked its way through the legal system, giving the pontiff a chance to address a U.S. flock that many in Rome have long seen as too liberal for too long on a variety of issues, many of them involving sex.
The pope, seen by American scholars from the outset as a "hard-liner" when it comes to maintaining the purity of Catholic faith and doctrine, is expected to address the scandal and its aftermath during his visit. The church has paid out more than $2 billion in legal settlements the past five years to abuse victims and their attorneys.
Those who differ with the pope's firm stands on moral and social issues are using his visit as a springboard for discussion on the specifics of Catholic doctrine that they say are outmoded and should be left behind.
For example, four Catholic theologians will hold a conference call with journalists next week to launch their new publication, "Truth and Consequence: A Look Behind the Vatican's Ban on Contraception." The ban was outlined 40 years ago in a Vatican document known as "Humanae Vitae," and according to the scholars, is "widely acknowledged as a defining moment in modern church history," creating "a source of great conflict and division in the church.
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Anonymous | April 12, 2008 at 7:36 p.m.
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