Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Vatican needs new means to adjudicate bishops' roles in sex abuse

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/distinctly-catholic/vatican-needs-new-means-adjudicate-bishops-roles-sex-abuse
MGB: The obvious place is the Congregation for Bishops, but they are likely part of the problem. Had they been doing their jobs, they would know who was dropping the ball on sexual abuse and would have already tied a millstone around their necks, with the offending priests, and thrown them into the nearest lake, sea or ocean.

The problem is that, for good reason, the Vatican took over from Princes the appointment of bishops, who had taken it from the people.  In the modern world, both the appointment and the removal of bishops can be given back to the local people, not the clergy. The Church now needs a corps of lay deacon(ess)es to administer parishes (married, single, gay, straight, with the right to remarry) and govern each diocese as a body, including appointing priests and bishops.  When either mess up, it should be up to a body constituted the lay diaconate to investigate and remove offenders, with the national conference of bishops taking any action with regard to their vows.

Until this procedure is adopted, let the Holy See be the deep pockets to which victims' attorneys may go for satisfaction of claims.  Once a few Raphael's disappear from the Vatican walls, they will figure out a way to remove bishops quickly or give up power over them (although without that power, there is no need for a Curia of that size).

No comments:

Post a Comment