Chilean archbishop warns “modernist tendencies” are harassing the Church

Santiago, Chile, Jun 22, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The Archbishop emeritus of La Serena, Chile, Bernardino Piñera, said this week that “modernist and secular tendencies” are harassing the Church and that scandals are being blown out of proportion in order to destroy her.

Speaking to the Chilean daily El Dia, the archbishop said the phenomenon is occurring primarily in Europe but that it has repercussions in Latin America.  The press, he added, “is harassing the Catholic Church” by publishing distortions in order to discredit her.

Archbishop Piñera noted that the Church is a divine institution made up of men, and therefore it should not be shocking that “out of a thousand men, there are always ten that fail.”  Nevertheless, today “there are no more failings than there have always been,” there is just a greater obsession to point them out.

Regarding the issue of priestly pedophilia, the archbishop acknowledged that some cases have indeed taken place, but “we know that in the United States there are lawyers who have become millionaires by getting money out of the Church.”

He said the matter was just as absurd as the Minister of Education paying a fine “every time a teacher misbehaves,” or the Minister of Health every time “a doctor mistreats a nurse.”

Not too long ago, the Church was treated with respect and sympathy, even by non-Catholics, he said. “Today that has been lost.”

Nevertheless, he pointed out, “The Church continues working” and is “not discouraged by these things.”  Despite the different crisis the Church has endured throughout the centuries, she continues to move forward, and “that is the mystery of God,” the archbishop stated.