The Memorial of Saint Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, on the First Day of the Vatican Synod on Clerical Sexual Abuse
The Memorial of Saint Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, on the First Day of the Vatican Synod on Clerical Sexual Abuse Much of St. Peter Damian’s reform struggle seems strikingly relevant to the modern situation of the Church today, as 190 Catholic leaders are meeting in the Vatican today in an historic summit devoted to child sexual abuse. I don’t speak about this often, but it seemed appropriate on the beginning day of this synod, and on the feast of this particular saint, to say something to this matter. Every Catholic knows that the Pope is elected by, and from, the Cardinals of the Church gathered in the Sistine Chapel. Every Catholic knows that the Pope then goes to a large balcony perched high in the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica to greet the faithful and receive their acceptance. This is simply the way things are done in the Church. But it’s not the way things were always done. A Catholic in the early Middle Ages would have described a papal election a