On October 18, the Archbishop of Manila made a public apology for the sins of the Church.
And once again, the perennial non-forgivers used the occasion of his apology as an opportunity to spew hatred against the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, speaking to about 5,000 attendees of the Philippine Conference on the New Evangelization, expressed contrition for the sins, the hurts that the Church has inflicted on non-Catholics and non-Christians. [...]
And then the comboxes exploded.
The perennially incensed enemies of the Church cried for vengeance [...]
But there are many people who, for some reason of their own, do not wish to accept an apology.
Why? Kathy Schiffer gives a few reasons, but I think this is the biggest one:
Perhaps—and this may be the biggest temptation of all—they don’t want to forgive the Church because they don’t want to obey the Church.
She goes on to write:
To these groups, and to all who have been injured, let me extend my apology along with Cardinal Tagle’s. Things have happened in the Church, as in the rest of the world, which are truly reprehensible.
But I ask you: Will you accept that apology? Or will you wear your grudge like a badge of honor, embracing malignity, residing in that place of bitterness all your days?
Haters will never accept apologies. There's no point in trying to appease them. They feed off their own hate of the Church.
I think apologies feed into their need to humiliate the Church. "Ha! See! They admit it! They did wrong! They're so evil!"
They make me think of people who are always going after singers whom they think are talentless. "Man she can't sing!" Except millions of people just happen to con themselves into being entertained by that person's music. Yeah, sure bud.
