Cardinal Müller: bishops must confront clerical abuse, avoid false mercy
March 13, 2015
In an address on the topic of serious canonical crimes, including the clerical sexual abuse of minors, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that bishops “have the obligation to prevent and to be vigilant in order to avoid the commission of such crimes.”
The Church has face “a serious challenge in which the credibility of its teaching has been placed in doubt because of certain actions -- the 'graviora delicta' (more grave crimes) -- on the part of some of its sons and by the lack of a response to confront it.”
“It is not enough for us to say that it is a matter of lies sown by enemies of the Church, who nevertheless profit from the circumstances,” he continued.
“The obligation to seek justice in the cases of the 'graviora delicta' can in no way be considered opposed to the obligations of charity or mercy,” he added. “Neither charity as the highest virtue consistent with love of God and one's neighbor, nor mercy as the inclination of compassion and assistance for the misery of others, can be true if they are introduced on the basis of injustice.”
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