scaling problems and an appalling analogy
Apr. 3rd, 2010 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutThe Catholic Church in Germany set up a hotline for abuse victims to call.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0403/Should-the-Vatican-have-adopted-US-reforms-on-sex-abuse/%28page%29/2
[quote begins here]A hotline set up by the Catholic Church in Germany was overwhelmed by more than 4,000 alleged victims calling for counseling and advice.
“In the end only 162 out of 4,459 callers were given advice before the system was shut down,” the Daily Mail reports. “Andreas Zimmer, head of the project in the Bishopric of Trier, admitted that he wasn't prepared for ‘that kind of an onslaught’.”[quote ends here]
I guess I'd sort of like to know the timeframe, but I don't think it really matters -- this clearly happened _very_ quickly. I guess when you've piled the whole world on top of a bubbling cauldron of catastrophe, when you try to take a peek at how it's going in there, you're likely to get burnt.
[quote begins here]Father Raniero Cantalamessa, described as “the Pope’s personal preacher,” likened attacks on the church and the Pope to anti-Semitism comparable to "collective violence" against Jews during the Holocaust.
While Vatican officials later said that was not the official position, Jews around the world were aghast.
"How can you compare the collective guilt assigned to the Jews which caused the deaths of tens of millions of innocent people to perpetrators who abuse their faith and their calling by sexually abusing children?" asked Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the international Jewish rights group.[quote ends here]
I'd heard some summary of this, but the incident was a _lot_ worse than I realized.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6320SL20100403
[quote begins here]"The use of stereotypes, the shifting of personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism," Cantalamessa quoted from a letter he said he had received from a Jewish friend.[quote ends here] Maybe the friend's name was Hankman Berman?
The most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism would seem to me to include torture and attempted genocide. I don't see anything like that being aimed at Catholics, or even the Catholic hierarchy in particular.
Better coverage here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/04/02/2010-04-02_vatican_preacher_blaming_pope_for_sex_abuse_scandal_like_most_shameful_aspects_o.html
[quote begins here]His remarks drew immediate outrage from Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, who blasted Cantalamessa for making such an "offensive comparison ... in the presence of the Pope."
The fact that the priest chose to do so on Good Friday "indicates the depth of his ignorance," he said. "It's sad and ironic," Foxman said. "Good Friday is the day that, for hundreds of years, Jews hid in their basements because Jews were blamed by the Catholic Church for crucifying Christ."[quote ends here]
ETA:
http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/rakshashetty/9/61707/persecution-all-over-again.html
"One priest I spoke to also blamed Jewish lawyer lobbies (especially powerful in New York) for instigating and publicising cases of molestation, many of which they say are false."
Now _that_ would be an example of shameful anti-Semitism.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0403/Should-the-Vatican-have-adopted-US-reforms-on-sex-abuse/%28page%29/2
[quote begins here]A hotline set up by the Catholic Church in Germany was overwhelmed by more than 4,000 alleged victims calling for counseling and advice.
“In the end only 162 out of 4,459 callers were given advice before the system was shut down,” the Daily Mail reports. “Andreas Zimmer, head of the project in the Bishopric of Trier, admitted that he wasn't prepared for ‘that kind of an onslaught’.”[quote ends here]
I guess I'd sort of like to know the timeframe, but I don't think it really matters -- this clearly happened _very_ quickly. I guess when you've piled the whole world on top of a bubbling cauldron of catastrophe, when you try to take a peek at how it's going in there, you're likely to get burnt.
[quote begins here]Father Raniero Cantalamessa, described as “the Pope’s personal preacher,” likened attacks on the church and the Pope to anti-Semitism comparable to "collective violence" against Jews during the Holocaust.
While Vatican officials later said that was not the official position, Jews around the world were aghast.
"How can you compare the collective guilt assigned to the Jews which caused the deaths of tens of millions of innocent people to perpetrators who abuse their faith and their calling by sexually abusing children?" asked Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the international Jewish rights group.[quote ends here]
I'd heard some summary of this, but the incident was a _lot_ worse than I realized.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6320SL20100403
[quote begins here]"The use of stereotypes, the shifting of personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism," Cantalamessa quoted from a letter he said he had received from a Jewish friend.[quote ends here] Maybe the friend's name was Hankman Berman?
The most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism would seem to me to include torture and attempted genocide. I don't see anything like that being aimed at Catholics, or even the Catholic hierarchy in particular.
Better coverage here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/04/02/2010-04-02_vatican_preacher_blaming_pope_for_sex_abuse_scandal_like_most_shameful_aspects_o.html
[quote begins here]His remarks drew immediate outrage from Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, who blasted Cantalamessa for making such an "offensive comparison ... in the presence of the Pope."
The fact that the priest chose to do so on Good Friday "indicates the depth of his ignorance," he said. "It's sad and ironic," Foxman said. "Good Friday is the day that, for hundreds of years, Jews hid in their basements because Jews were blamed by the Catholic Church for crucifying Christ."[quote ends here]
ETA:
http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/rakshashetty/9/61707/persecution-all-over-again.html
"One priest I spoke to also blamed Jewish lawyer lobbies (especially powerful in New York) for instigating and publicising cases of molestation, many of which they say are false."
Now _that_ would be an example of shameful anti-Semitism.