It is difficult to read, but between the words "deeply" and "ashamed" is the following:
". . . sorry about the pedophile priests who preyed upon your children, but the Vatican has no intention of disciplining or removing bishops, cardinals, and other members of the church hierarchy who knew of or even facilitated the reprehensible acts of which we are so . . ."
I saw this political cartoon in my newspaper this morning, which touched upon a discussion I was having last Friday during lunch with a fellow parishioner.
The sex abuse scandal has not driven from the Church. On the contrary, it has made me seek, find and appreciate the good people - both clergy and laity - that are fellow Catholics and they have inspired me to be a better Catholic, or at least make all attempts to be so.
However, I am constantly challenged by the absolute lack of consequences for the bishops and cardinals who knew of the abuses and did their best to cover it all up. While I can find hope in the Pope's comment, for me it is simply not enough. Even removing one of these men and placing them as chaplain of a weather station north of the Arctic Circle would be enough for me, although defrocking would be preferable in some cases.
I applaud His Holiness' meeting with the victims, but as the Sacrament of Penance teaches us, it is not simply a matter of confessing one's sins, but there is also the measure of penance that must be done. I believe that for people like Cardinal Law and Cardinal Mahoney, there will be an accounting at the end, and for the sake of their souls I hope it is in Purgatory and not Hell - but it strikes me deeply as unjust that nothing happens to them during their tenure here on Earth.
Indeed, perhaps I can be so bold as to suggest that any lack of action is a sin of omission, since I see in these men utter hubris and by not imposing some penalty, the Pope only aids in promoting that aspect of their lives. I often tell my clients that they need to have "skin in the game", meaning that if they are not committed to their case, how can they expect the Judge to be? Unfortunately, the cardinal's skin here is Teflon.
4 comments:
Oh, I agree. As luck would have it, I was teaching a section on "corporate criminal liability" (Enron, etc.) on Weds. night in my Business Law class. We morphed into the sex abuse crisis, too, and that's when I expostulated my theory on why JPII didn't come right out and apologize (a.k.a., admission of liability with pending litigation), while Cardinal Ratzinger certainly made his opinion on the matter clear.
If something does not change, Bishops here are not "reassigned" and/or announce early retirements, I'm going to have a real hard time with it. As I commented elsewhere, watching Mass at St. Patrick's yesterday with Matthew Clark of Rochester mugging for the cameras whenever the cantor was singing and waving at everyone as he processed out, bold as brass, made me sick with rage, knowing what he's done about the situation here.
(Must stop gritting teeth, appointment to get chipped bonding fixed on Friday...)
With all that said, the Pope's remarks were also carefully circumscribed by the Legal Beagles of the Church...
But it is very easy to figure out what he meant, and where the finger was pointed.
Agree. We need to see some heads roll, but they get kicked "up stairs" -- "up stairs" *without* a body is one thing, but the heads are still attached, and the offending parties (in this case I mean the bishops et al who KNEW what was happening, who put them in the positions they were, and who left bad formation in the seminaries and turned a blind eye to "nancy boy" culture being tolerated therein need to be held accountable. Clean house, and start from the top.
Bravo! Excellent comments digi.
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