Among the odd notes in B16’s letter on sex abuse crisis is where he offers an excursus on the proper reading of Mk 9:42 (better if a great millstone): not about innocent children, but protecting the faithful from the “intellectual arrogance of those who think they are clever.”
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Yes I was struck by that. And by how canon law was imbalanced not by preferring rights of accused to rights of victims, but by not including faith as a good. Neither in his millstone reading or elsewhere are victims mentioned.
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As if: if only we could put this unpleasantness behind us and get back to the real business of defending the deposit of faith against secularism, relativism, and atheism. It was that orientation that caused the Vatican to miss the real scandal under their noses.