Saints Light
Hard Questions · Lesson 15 of 16

What About the Scandals?

The abuse crisis was a grave evil and a betrayal, and the Church has made real reforms; Catholics stay because the Church's holiness comes from Christ, not from her sinful members.

This is a summary of Lesson 15 of Answers to Hard Questions. The full lesson takes about 3 minutes in the Saints Light app.

Saint Augustine in His Study, a painting by Sandro Botticelli
Saint Augustine in His Study, Sandro Botticelli, c. 1490-1494

What this lesson teaches

  • The abuse crisis is a grave evil made worse by cover-up, and survivors are owed justice and care.
  • Real reforms followed: the 2002 Charter, the Pontifical Commission (2014) and Vos Estis Lux Mundi (2019).
  • The Church is holy because Christ is holy, not because her members are sinless.
  • People stay for Jesus, like Peter: to whom else shall we go?

Catechism paragraphs this lesson cites

  • CCC 823-824
  • CCC 827
  • CCC 1584
  • CCC 2285

CCC means the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Saints Light teaches it in its own words and never quotes it. Look up any paragraph in a printed copy or at vatican.va. See every lesson by paragraph in the Catechism index.

Scripture read in this lesson: Luke 22:61-62; John 6:68-69 (6:67-68 in most modern Bibles); Matthew 18:6.

A sample question from this lesson

How does the lesson say to begin when the scandals come up?

  1. With statistics showing other institutions are worse
  2. With grief and honesty about the evil done
  3. By changing the subject
  4. By defending the bishops involved
Show the answer

With grief and honesty about the evil done. The lesson says to begin with grief, not defense, because abuse and its cover-up were grave evils.

The lesson in the app has three questions, each with an explanation.

Read the full lesson in the app

"What About the Scandals?" is lesson 15 of Answers to Hard Questions. In Saints Light you get the whole teaching, the Scripture quoted in full, all three questions and a step to live it this week.

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