by Lynn Hayes
Better late than never I suppose:
The sexual abuse of children is not just a “heinous crime” but a “grave sin” that offends God and wounds human dignity, Pope Benedict XVI said Tuesday after a two-day meeting with Irish Catholic bishops at the Vatican.
The weakening of faith has also been a “significant contributing factor” in the sexual abuse of minors, the pope said, adding that “current painful situation will not be resolved quickly.”
The pope’s comments came in a written Vatican statement at the end of the meeting, the largest one yet about the scandal that has rocked the church from Ireland to the Vatican and beyond.
A damning report by an independent Irish commission in November found the Catholic Church in Ireland had covered up the “widespread” abuse of children from 1975 to 2004.
Today, on the exact conjunction of Chiron (wounding and healing) and Neptune (spirituality and sacrifice) the Pope took a step towards healing the victims of the widespread sexual abuse that afflicted Catholic churches not only in Ireland but all over the world.
The healing of wounds that is Chiron’s specialty has been in the news lately on another topic: the healing of Iraq war veterans through talking about their experiences:
The act of killing is as fundamental to war as oxygen is to fire. Yet it is also the one thing many combat veterans avoid discussing when they return home, whether out of shame, guilt or a deep fear of being misunderstood.
But a new study of Iraq war veterans by researchers in San Francisco suggests that more discussion of killing may help veterans cope with an array of mental health problems stemming from war.
The study, published last week in The Journal of Traumatic Stress, found that soldiers who reported having killed in combat, or who gave orders that led to killing, were more likely to report the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse, anger and relationship problems. The study was based on data from health assessments conducted on about 2,800 soldiers who returned from Iraq in 2005 and 2006.
Chiron heals through exposing the wound to the light of consciousness where it can be managed and treated, and because Neptune rules deception and illusion as well as spirituality, in the conjunction of Chiron to Neptune the healing of damage by deception is a crucial part of the transformational process.
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