Consider the Martin Luther era, when things in the Catholic Church were even worse.

Question: Will the
Catholic Church recover from the current scandals? 

Ernst Weizsäcker: They certainly will recover. They've been in existence 2,000 years, and
they have a very strong message. 
But, they don't deserve to recover soon, unless they really accept the
guilt that some individuals loaded on themselves and the institution has to
learn that perhaps the conditions under which priests work are conducive to
certain misbehavior.  So, maybe the
conditions will have to be changed. 
This has been the case in the so-called reformation by Martin Luther and
others.  At that time, the Catholic
Church was in a much worse state of affairs, with much more guilt in that sense
than today.  And it has kind of led
to a purification.  The challenge
from the reformation has led the Catholics to learn much from Luther and
others.  So, now they are almost indistinguishable. Recorded on April 9, 2010

 

 



Question: Will the
Catholic Church recover from the current scandals? 

Ernst Weizsäcker: They certainly will recover. They've been in existence 2,000 years, and
they have a very strong message. 
But, they don't deserve to recover soon, unless they really accept the
guilt that some individuals loaded on themselves and the institution has to
learn that perhaps the conditions under which priests work are conducive to
certain misbehavior.  So, maybe the
conditions will have to be changed. 
This has been the case in the so-called reformation by Martin Luther and
others.  At that time, the Catholic
Church was in a much worse state of affairs, with much more guilt in that sense
than today.  And it has kind of led
to a purification.  The challenge
from the reformation has led the Catholics to learn much from Luther and
others.  So, now they are almost indistinguishable. Recorded on April 9, 2010