august 2022

«In the view of the dominant culture summed up well by an editorial in “The Economist” of July 14, there is one path the Catholic Church must take to curb the disease of clergy sex abuse: to abolish the discipline of celibacy. …» skriver den kjente Vatikan-kjenneren Sandro magister. Og deretter tar han fram en artikkel trykt på italiensk av biskop Erik Varden, som ser ut til å bli en stadig mer kjent stemme i den katolske verden. Slik skriver Magister:

… for the young and dynamic bishop of Trondheim, Norway, Erik Varden, who is showing himself to be one of the wisest and most spirited voices of Catholicism today, the “phármakon” that can heal the Church of the plague of abuse is …  that “medicine of immortality” which is one of the most ancient definitions of the Eucharist.

He writes and argues this in an article in the latest issue of “Vita e Pensiero,” the magazine of the Catholic University of Milan, the salient passages of which are reproduced below.

Varden acknowledges and approves of the practical, judicial measures adopted by the Catholic Church to stem the plague. But they are not everything. Because the essential is elsewhere. It is in that source and summit of Church life which is precisely the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the Lamb who bears all the burden of the sins of the world.

“Before sin is ‘taken away,’” he writes, “it must be taken on and endured.” Like Jesus on the cross. The Church needs to make a penitential journey with its main route in the Eucharist. It has to bring “fulfillment to what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ,” as the apostle Paul said. …

Les gjerne videre i Magisters artikkel, der bl.a. hele biskop Eriks tekst er oversatt til engelsk.