Apologia, Papal and Other

Standing on the sunny, well-guarded streets of Manhattan yesterday, basking in the communal joy of spring, watching the Pope's limo whiz up tulip-lined Park Avenue, I had time to appreciate the papal apology.

I'm not a Catholic or a formerly fondled altar boy, but the Pope's apology for demonic priestly behavior struck me as a good step in the direction of setting the world a little bit back to rights.

It also got me thinking how sad it is that so many of the institutions that sustained our foremothers and forefathers have been laid low in my lifetime, and how nice it would be if the various miscreants or their proxies would have the guts to simply stand up and apologize.

Apologies may not repair literal damage, but they have a strange talismanic power to heal. I once reported a story on medical malpractice, in which I learned that it is a statistical fact that when doctors apologize for, say, cutting off the wrong breast or sewing a sponge into the abdomen, they are actually less likely to be sued.

An expression of regret can begin the process of re-constructing trust in the once mighty man-made institutions that have been brought low by individual men (and women).

Without further ado, some apologies I'd like to hear today:

President Bush to the Iraqi people: "I am sorry I started a war that killed a million of you for no good reason."

President Bush to the American military and families: "I am sorry I sent you into harm's way for the personal folly of proving to my dad that I am tough enough to be called commander in chief."

President Bush to the American people: "I am sorry I squandered your hard-earned tax dollars in a win-less war, and presided over the grounding of your economy into the dirt."

Vice President Dick Cheney: "I am sorry I used foul language on the Senate floor. And, more importantly, I am sorry I sullied the American electoral system with my malignant presence."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "I am sorry I never allowed Congress to open impeachment proceedings, thereby failing to allow Congress to act as a check on a criminal regime."

Supreme Court Justices who participated in the 2000 election decision: "We are truly sorry we did not allow the recount to proceed."

Rupert Murdoch: "I am sorry I let my major news network act as a lapdog for the Bush administration, instead of practicing responsible, civic-minded journalism that might have informed the American people."

Former President Clinton: "I am sorry I had sex with an intern called Monica Lewinsky, and I am sorry I called her 'that woman.' I will spend the rest of my life silently repenting."

Monica Lewinsky: "I am sorry I flashed a thong at my boss and let it be said that I was a victim of sexual harassment, thereby allowing a legal concept intended for genuinely victimized women to be twisted into a distraction from things that really mattered, like education and health care."

Bank honcho (pick one): "On behalf of my fellow billionaires, I am sorry we got rich off your debt, middle America, instead of behaving like responsible bankers, and that you now have to pay us anyway."

President of major American car-maker: "I am sorry we kept making gas-sucking giant vehicles for years after we knew better and could have put our best engineering minds to work on conservation."

Republican presidential voter, circa 2004: "I am sorry I cast a ballot that put us four more years behind the rest of the developed world in terms of education, health care, environment and contributed to the ruination of our national economy. I will try not to base my next vote on the groundless fear of terrorism personally affecting me and my family living in Topeka (or X remote American location) this year."

There. Close your eyes and imagine all these apologies have just been issued. Now don't you feel better already?

Comments

[jayinma]

Great post, but doesn't "apologia" literally mean a defense or justification?

[Galloviejo]

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[stellanoir]

Apologies are hollow without rectification and remedies.

The sexual abuse finds its root in the demonization of sexuality as the original sin, the desecration of the divine feminine with the virgin/whore, spiritual/sexual schism, and the forced celibacy of priests.

The church has to address all of that or this crap is likely to continue.

Your litany of imagined apologies made the imaginary Ipod in my cranium shuffle to this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUZ-KJvkcfk

and reminded of me of my kid when he was little I'd ask him about something he'd do that was questionable and he'd say "Sowwy" in a thoroughly disingenuous way with a big smile on his face.

I'd generally shake my head and laugh.

I've never seen the absence of accountability or personal responsibility or honesty in our culture be so extreme.

Hopefully it can only get better over time.

[rroy]

Reading the headline I thought I was going to read a comment critiicising the practices of the Catholic Church.Instead the article turned out to be a condemnation-though a much needed one-of Neocon practices!
I want to stick to the subject of the Catholic Church:

For reasons that too often totaly puzzle me,a large segment of the populace has chosen to accept the Church,especialy the Catholic Church as some ordained body that dictates our thinkings and practices about Morality.
Well as I see it the Catholic Church is slowly but inevitably approaching the current status of Royalty in the"Civili­zed"world!­That is the status of irelavence!And the sooner the better.

Silly ritualistic nonsense such as vows of chastity by priests,abbots and nunsare as impractical and unatural as the selling of indulgances that ocurred in the pre transformation or pre Martin Luther days of the 16thy century.There are many other examples of so much sillynes,not the least of which are things like worship of imagined Holy Relics

[musicman42]

As they say in jolly old England - well done, you! Spot on.

[mamacat]

Thanks for an amusing blog.
The chance that Dubya will apologise for starting a war over lies is about the same as him working to alleviate peace after he leaves the White House. Bush #1 takes his responsibilities as a statesman reasonably seriously, but Bush #2 has already stated (approximately) "you won't see me walking the halls of the United Nations (like Clinton, trying to get something accomplished). I intend to go on the speaking circuit (and get his payoffs for a job 'well' done)".

[unitron]

The Pope talked about the pain and suffering those priests caused "to the Church". The networks doctored his words to make it seem like he said "to the victims". Back when this first started the garnd poobahs of the Roman Catholic church in America lamented the priests' infidelity to their vows to the church, like the wife of a rapist complaining that her husband's sexual infidelity made her the real victim.

The people running the church still think that the church is the real victim. In other words, it's all about them.

I'm not holding my breath waiting on the apology for that.

[Rule Of Law]

when he's done apologizing here, he can go to Ireland, England, most any Spanish speaking Catholic nation and then back to Italy and make the same apology in each country. Our system is crumbling and our politics are rancid, but on this issue, freedom of the press and our legal system have exposed a universal pathology in Catholicism that rarely is spoken about, much less dealt with, in any other country.

[Kirk59]

Did I hear the Pope say this abuse issue was a problem of the "American Catholic Church". I know there have been sex scandals in other countries, so why pick on us? You are so correct that only because of the secular press and their freedoms was the scandal so openly exposed here. Human nature and logic would lead one to believe the probelms are just as bad or maybe worse elsewhere, where the children are poorer and the society more deferential to Catholic authority.

The crimes will continue as long as they continue to recruit sexual misfits with their Medieval policies of celibacy, no marraige, and no females in te priesthood.

[Rule Of Law]

thanks. I remember a movie from a year or so ago about Catholic children's work prisons in Ireland where "incorrigible girls," were sent to be re-educated, and used as slave labor by the Nuns. Based on a true story, these places were only shut sometime in the 1980's!!! And the abuse, even by Nuns, never mind the Priests, was horrifying. We are still lucky, as you said, to be living in a secular society, and not the Taliban/Born Again state Bush wants to establish.

[DramaQueen101]

Better late than never, I suppose, but I think that the apology would mean a lot more if the Catholic Church had acted sooner instead of trying to cover up these abuses in the first place. The Vatican is treated by the world as though it were a small country. They need to start acting as such and start punishing their criminals.

[wakupmagy]

And you owe Monica Lewinsky an apology for an egregious, revisionist mistatement of the facts.

Paula Jones filed a sexual harrassment suit. Not Monica Lewinsky.

On the contrary, Monica fought to keep out of it by filing an affidavit denying the affair. Remember? That's what got her in so much trouble.

And the Jones lawyers and Ken Starr would have never even known her name (nor would we) if Linda Tripp--remember her?-- had not given them the illegal taperecordings she made.

[Gmoney1]

Here's my question that I want the Media to address - who's paying for all this pomp and circumstance for this papal visit here in the united states ??? - what with all these facilitities requiring security, space, time, effort and responsibility - is our TAX dollars being used - we need to know because if there is a separation between church and state, I think america should know if there a separation of our tax dollars regardless of the religion -

[MainSpark]

"Republican presidential voter, circa 2004: "I am sorry I cast a ballot that put us four more years behind the rest of the developed world in terms of education, health care, environment and contributed to the ruination of our national economy."

It would seem that this apology would be the most likely to occur, if you concede that Republican presidential voters are reasonable people.

I'm not holding my breath.

[Atticus]

Very good. I would also add:

Democrat "loyal" opposition: "I am sorry that I underminded our troops as they faced our enemies by maligning their efforts for sake of creating a political football. I am sorry that we didn't stand firm and close ranks inorder to show a united front. I am sorry for using a troubled, dysfunctional grieving mother to weaken America's resolve, thereby comforting the enemy."

[anon004]

Please provide a quote from a leading Democrat that "maligned the efforts of the troops"? If you mean that some (alas, not enough) Democrats opposed either getting into this needless war or the blundering of the civilian planners who botched the "peace" (BTW, by that standard, John McCain becomes the "loyal opposition"), then I think you owe an apology to everyone who believes that the Consituttion guarantees the right of free speech and the obligation to protest bad policy without being accused of providing "comfort to the enemy."

[cktirumalai]

I agree with you about the potential power of the Pope's personal apology.
In a broader context I would suggest that honest Christians could examine to what extent the genesis of Christainity (for various reasons I do not wish to state it more directly than that) and clerical sexual abuse may be indirectly related, not in order to discredit Christianity but to try to reconstruct it in its full original context. I think this question is of much more than academic or theoretic importance, though any kind of legal certainty in the matter is impossible. Such a reconstruction will, I believe, release hitherto untapped energies.