One of the many deeply disturbing aspects of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church has been the lack of discussion about penance nbsp While public apologies from bishops who protected abusive priests are becoming more common doing penance to atone for individual sins is still too rare n

Father Martin has already called attention to an article in yesterday rsquo s New York Times by Nicholas Kristof although it is a mystery to me why Father applied the adjective excellent to it I found the article literally dripping in the kind of misplaced moral and intellectual superiority to wh

Uplifting news from Malta where Pope Benedict recently concluded his visit by a surprise private meeting with eight clerical sex abuse victims A Vatican statement said the Pope was deeply moved by their stories and expressed his shame and sorrow over what victims and their families have

Recently I came home to hear my four year old daughter listening to a CD which has entranced her making her memorize words melodies song order It turns out she is also memorizing poetry A relative bought for her the new Natalie Merchant record Leave Your Sleep Music critic Jon Pareles

Two excellent articles in the Sunday papers today shed light rather than heat on the sexual abuse crisis nbsp First off David Gibson has a terrific piece in the Washington Post entitled Five Myths about the Catholic sexual abuse scandal nbsp The myths are 1 Pope Benedict is the primary culpr

Speaking on NPR s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon on the need for penance and some of the causes of the sexual abuse crisis nbsp Weekend Edition is one of the sanest places to discuss these issues I think nbsp The link to NPR is here