by Julie Steiner
“With the Vatican resisting change, it will have to come from outside the Catholic world.”—“Catholic Church ‘nowhere close’ to confronting global ‘epidemic’ of child sex abuse by priests,” The Telegraph, 19 February 2019
1. A Concise Translation of the Vatican’s 1962 Crimen Sollicitationis Instruction
Sadly,
some priests behave badly.
Give all who know it—even children—hell
if they tell.
The priest and Levite couldn’t pause.
They scuttled past the victim.
To keep their cold religious laws,
the priest and Levite couldn’t pause.
The heretic could help, because
such rules did not restrict him.
The priest and Levite couldn’t. [Pause.]
They scuttled. Passed the victim.
3. The Lost Sheep (Luke 15:3-7)
The Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine
to save the one who’s in perdition.
The flock stay put, convinced they’re fine;
the Shepherd leaves. The ninety-nine
lose sight of him when they decline
to join him on his rescue mission.
The Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine
to save the one. Who’s in perdition?
Julie Steiner lives and writes in San Diego. Besides the TheNewVerse.News, the venues in which her poetry has appeared include the Able Muse Review, American Arts Quarterly, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Rattle, and the Rat's Ass Review.
