Remembering Sophie

Today is the anniversary of the execution of Sophie Scholl, the young German woman who with her brother Hans and other brave souls formed the White Rose group to defy Hitler and Nazism during the Second World War. She was guillotined on the 22nd February 1943 after a mockery of a trial for her treason against the German people, in reality - her refusal to cooperate with the Nazi regime. 

She and the other members of the group simply wrote about what was happening. In letters sent all over Germany they told the people of Germany what Hitler and his minions were doing, what they stood for and why it was wrong. It was a simple resistance, highly organised and effective, but given the dangers, very risky. Sophie and her companions were in no doubt as to the consequences of their actions should they get caught. However, their commitment to the truth outweighed the dangers, they were ready to lay down their lives for the truth.

In recent years it has been revealed that Sophie was hugely influenced by Blessed John Henry Newman and her work for the White Rose was motivated by her devout Christian faith.   It seems she was preparing to be received into the Catholic Church: she had been brought up Lutheran. Apparently as she was awaiting the sentence of death to be carried out she and her brother had requested to see a Catholic priest intending to be received before they were executed. However, she was dissuaded by a Lutheran chaplain who told her that it would destroy her mother, a devout Lutheran: not only had the woman to deal with the death of her children, but knowing that they had left Lutheranism just before their death would have been too much for her. With filial devotion Sophie and Hans didn't take the step. If they had converted there may well have been a chance that Sophie at least might have been beatified by now since her death almost certainly constituted martyrdom given that her work was motivated by her Christian faith. If that had happened today might have been her feast day.

However, today is her dies natalis. Like the Coptic martyrs, we Catholics must also acknowledge the heroic witness of fellow Christians, as did Pope Francis in his speaking about those pious Egyptian men martyred for Christ by ISIS. The Holy Father has spoken of an "ecumenism of blood" uniting us, and that is true. Regardless of their Christian denomination, if a person sincerely lays down their life for Christ, even those not in the fullness of the truth, they are martyrs for having offered the greatest sacrifice of all for Christ. Remember martyrdom wipes out all sin, it surely wipes out all error too. In Christ's eyes, when he sees the soul of one who freely accepted death rather than deny him, he sees the witness of love. 

That said, as I have wondered before, in Sophie's case, if it is possible to prove her intention of entering the Church could we put her forward for beatification: we have martyr Saints (St Genesius among them) who were not baptised but their martyrdom was a baptism in blood, and we also have incidents of baptism by desire: would it be possible to see Sophie in similar terms in regard to her desire and her martyrdom? Just wondering. 

Sophie's stand reminds me of the work of many today. She died because she was telling the truth, she and her companions were informing Germans about what lay behind the regime and how the war was going - badly for Nazi Germany. Today we have men and women who are also telling truth about many things and they too are being persecuted for it. Members of the Iona Institute in Ireland here come to mind. David Quinn and Breda O'Brien are two fine people of faith who seriously reflect on where Ireland is going, and using verifiable, empirical evidence, show that the path we are taking will ultimately be disastrous not just for individuals but for our people as a whole. For this they are attacked, pilloried, they even get death threats on a regular basis. The media treat them aggressively, totally unwilling to listen objectively to what they and their colleagues have to say. Like John the Baptist they are crying in the wilderness and no one wants to listen. They will be proved right because they are drawing on what has happened in other countries, places where our permissive citizens's ideological comrades are now in denial, throwing oil on the fire they have caused thinking it will quench the flames. 

Perhaps today we might pray for those who tell the truth in our midst and suffer for it. Like Sophie they have weighed up the consequences and have decided that service to the truth outweighs the dangers. That is real courage. 

George Weigel Talk

For those of you who could not make George Weigel's talk on renewing the Church at the Iona Institute last week, here is the video just posted on the Institute's website.  Well worth watching.

Iona Institute Survey On Child Abuse

The Iona Institute has released the results of a recent survey in which they have discovered that Irish people have overestimated the extent of the child abuse problem with regard to priests. 

The much ignored SAVI Report (an independent report into child abuse conducted by the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre) tells us that about 3% of those who have been abused have been abused by priests/clerics/religious.  It contrasts with the perceptions of many Irish people, and indeed with the amount of coverage the media have given to child abuse in the Church - the bigger problem in society tends to be ignored. 

Here is a copy of the press release from the Iona Institute, thanks to them for sending it to me.

Majority of public overestimates number of priests who are guilty of child abuse

Seven in ten overestimate prevalence of abusers among the Catholic clergy

One in four believe that 40pc or more of all priests have abused a child

November 1, 2011- A CLEAR majority of the public overestimate the number of Catholic clergy who are guilty of child abuse, a new Amarach Research poll commissioned by The Iona Institute reveals.

The most authoritative estimate to date, conducted in the United States, puts the true number of accused priests at 4 percent. (See note three below).

However, seven out of every ten respondents believe the number is higher than this and 42 per cent put the number above 20 percent. Of these, 27 percent believe the number exceeds 40 percent, and 17 percent put it at half or more.

Five percent of the public believe that between 90 percent and 100 percent of all Catholic priests are guilty of child abuse. (For a fuller breakdown of the figures see note four below).

Therefore, close to half of the public are overestimating the number of guilty priests by a factor of at least five to one.

The findings of The Iona Institute poll are similar to those of a poll commissioned on this subject by the Royal College of Surgeons in 2002, although a higher percentage of the public are now grossly overestimating the number of priests who are guilty of child abuse.

The Royal College poll found that 11pc of the public believed that more than half of priests are guilty of child abuse. This latest poll, as mentioned, found that 17 percent of the public today put it at more than half.

Commenting on the findings on behalf of The Iona Institute, Professor Patricia Casey said: “There has been very deep and completely justified public anger over the scandal of child sex abuse by clergy. However, only a small minority of priests are guilty of this terrible crime and in the interests of justice, and in fairness to the vast majority of priests, it is essential that fact this becomes universally known among the public at large”.

Professor Casey continued: “It might be understandable if the public were overestimating the number of guilty priests by a factor of two or so, but the fact that so many members of the public are grossly overestimating the number of guilty priests should be a matter of deep concern to all fair-minded people.

“It could be claimed that the fact for this overestimation lies exclusively with the Church. However, as a normal rule when responsible media outlets are reporting crimes by certain groups such as Travellers or Muslims, great care is taken not to stereotype or demonise these groups.

“For example, when terrorist atrocities are committed in the name of Islam, responsible media point out that only a tiny minority of Muslims are guilty of these atrocities, and that such terrorist attacks are an aberration in Muslim terms, rather than a true expression of Islam”.

She concluded: “Therefore, when cases of clerical abuse are being reported, a similarly responsible attitude should be adopted, that is, the cases should be factually and objectively covered, but it should be made clear each and every time that only a very small minority of Catholic priests are guilty of child abuse”.

          ENDS
        Notes to Editor

1.      The Iona Institute is a pro-religion organisation.
2.      These findings are based on a nationwide survey of 1,000 Irish people in September using the Amárach Research omnibus service.
3.      According to the most authoritative study on the topic, conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the United States, four percent of priests in the US had one or more allegations of child abuse made against them in the period 1950 to 2002. The abuse scandals peaked between 1975 and 1985. The study is called ‘The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States’. No comparable study has been done of any other organisation anywhere in the world. The variation between US dioceses averaged at between 3-6%.
4.      Thirty one percent of respondents put the number of abusers at 5% or less. Another 14% put it at 6 to 10%; 13% put it at 11 to 20%; 10% at 21 to 30%; 5% at 31 to 40%; 10% at 41 to 50%; 4% at 51 to 60%; 3% at 61 to 70%; 4% at 71 to 80%; 1% at 81 to 90% and 5% at 91 to 100%.

Coverage of the findings in today's newspapers: The Irish Examiner, The Irish Independent, The Irish Times, Yahoo! news also has an article, note they put 'overestimated' in inverted commas - they should read the SAVI Report.   The Belfast Telegraph does the same in its article.  So should the last 5% who think that 91-100% of priests are child abusers.   

The Iona Institute does great work and is worthy of support.  They get a lot of flack because they make public the news a lot of people do not want to hear.  They tend to be unpopular with both the media and members of the hierarchy, but they do a great service to society and the Church.  So, if you have a few euro/pounds/dollars to spare, you could do worse than send them a donation to help them in their work.  Link to their website here.