Grapes of Wrath Action Project

Before I could write a letter to the Pope in Rome, I had to investigate this issue further.  I first “Googled” several keywords, but instead of finding honest articles, I found a lot of garbage and hate. I then found this article: http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/christianity/catholicism/pope-benedict-xvi-suggests-pedophilia-was-acceptable-1970s which, seemed be helpful.  I then decided to look at a Catholic view of the issue, so I found on Catholic.com, this article: http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/celibacy-isn%E2%80%99t-the-problem.  The more I researched, the more I learned that the problem is not the actual crime, because truly it was more of a scandal than a widespread issue like the one I thought. After reading several more articles I came to a conclusion.  The real issue was the Pope’s reaction.  I feel that he gave insufficient justification on how this was allowed in the first place, how the church planned on making sure it did not happen again and etc.

I decided that I was going to try to email him first because it may warrant the quickest results.

This is the email that I sent to him using his English email address  benedictxvi@vatican.va

Dear His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI,

            My name is Emily Shriver.  I am a student from Alden, NY, USA, a part of the Diocese of Buffalo. I first want to commend your leadership in attempting to reform the relations between the United States of America and Cuba in the last several months.

            My real reason for contacting you is for an assignment for my Advanced Placement Literature class at my high school.  We are reading John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and for an action project, we were assigned the task of contacting a large institution or company and have a question answered by the highest part of the chain of command as possible.  I decided to contact you because since mid-1980 or so the church has been affected by a great scandal, one involving the clergy.  I have personally experienced this tragedy at my own church twice several years ago.  I saw the devastation that occurred in the parish after such news was spread. I know that the actions of men should not make faith falter, but sometimes it does.  Similar to the Joad’s in the aforementioned novel, many Catholics look to the East for the source of their problems. In Rome, you have much authority to change people’s opinions about the tragedy and I believe that your official statements have not given the world a satisfactory explanation for what the Church plans on doing for prevention of more tragic occurrences from happening to other parishes and families.  I believe that because of this the idea of Catholicism has been tainted.  With many other religions that believe similarly, the Roman Catholic Church has which has been associated with such a heinous unresolved scandal, seems to be unfit for many people.  I believe that since the word Catholic literally means universal that our religion should not be excluding people because they are not able to receive the information needed. Overall, I would like to know how the Roman Catholic Church plans to make sure these crimes are not going to be reoccurring and the plan of action if they occur again. I would also like to know how the Church plans to reestablish itself to match the modern age.  When Jesus said to let the little children come to Him, he was speaking literally and metaphorically, but how can families let their children into the Church to know Him, if they feel it is unsafe to do so?  Thank you for reading this letter and I hope to receive a response.

Sincerely,

Emily Shriver

If I do not receive word within the next couple of months I plan on mailing the letter directly to

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI
Apostolic Palace 
00120 Vatican City

As well as emailing him again.

I hope that my questions will be answered accordingly and that the church makes further efforts to change.

After I emailed the letter, I received a notice saying that the email did not reach the sender. I am going to attempt to find another email.

I had first used http://www.osv.com/OSV4MeNav/TheHolyFathers/PopeBenedictXVI/Contactthepope/tabid/1597/Default.aspx this website for the contact information.

I will try sending the letter to benedettoxvi@vatican.va which is his Italian email address according to that website.

I found http://www.popebenedictxvifanclub.com/faq.html#contact, but it gave me the same email address. [I wonder if he had given email up for Lent and forgot to reinstate it… haha Catholic Joke…]

Next I tried this website

http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm

On this website I found more official documentation on the Chuch’s response http://www.vatican.va/resources/index_en.htm

I hope to find an email that works, but in the mean time, I will find an envelope and use snail mail.