To the Editor:
A recent article in The Catholic Messenger stated that Pope Francis said that Jesus himself showed that the best way to respond to scandal and divisiveness is to stay silent and pray. This struck me as the wrong response to the ongoing sexual abuse scandal. Isn’t silence what led to the scandal in the first place? People remaining silent, looking the other way, not speaking up about something that was wrong and evil?
While I agree that it is best to remain silent when discussions become malicious rather than engage in unproductive arguing, this is not the time to remain silent. I think that many people in the Catholic Church want the leadership to speak, to explain, to take accountability for the silence of the past.
Julie Zude
Davenport
