Heribert Prantl on the condemning Passion hymn

Now that numerous cases of abuse within the Catholic Church have come to light the Passion and the Good Friday Easter liturgies have acquired an accusing tone, writes Heribert Prantl in the left-liberal Süddeutsche Zeitung: "The most famous Passion hymn formulates this accusation. It describes the wounded head of Jesus Christ with words that are like blows: the face is wounded, covered in blood, surrounded by a crown of thorns, beaten, spat on, disfigured. … the inquirer, those who witness Christ on the cross, even those at prayer must confess their guilt: 'Cast me down before Thee, wrath were my rightful lot'. It is a line that should silence the Catholic dignitaries who start singing this hymn on Good Friday. Is it not the Church itself whose 'rightful lot were wrath'? Because it kept secret the sexual abuse of thousands of children by priests for so long and trivialised it, because it believed and in some cases still believes that it can just duck down until the storm passes, because it repeatedly lays the blame on others or points out that others and not just priests have sinned; because it still isn't capable of radical repentance."

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