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FrTim's avatar

Ed,

Thank you for this article.

I read with some consternation the report on the meeting of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. I don't deny the need for greater accountability in this area given the Church's recent history in this area. However, I still fail to see how bishops are truly being held accountable for their actions or inaction. There are laws in place now...Pope Francis must be commended for that!--but we are still far from any sense of consistent application of those laws.

Furthermore, there is an area that has been systematically ignored. While the law itself provides at least some protection for priests, the lack of rigor in definition and due process has resulted in many priests unjustly treated as a result of non-credible allegations. Priests don't trust their own bishops, and for good reason! As before it was "permissible" for a bishop to "avoid scandal" by covering for a priest, now it just as permissible for a bishop to avoid scandal but abandoning a priest unjustly accused.

Some will say, "Well, better to have one unjustly accused priest suffer to avoid the risk of any more bad press." I think Caiaphas said something similar. And yet our bishops don't see it. An reporter asked Archbishop Broglio about it shortly after his election as USCCB president. As I recall, he reluctantly acknowledged it was an issue but seemed not at all concerned with offering a solution. I think his final word on it was something along the lines of "Yes, it's unfortunate."

To accept and even sanction injustice in the Church--for anyone--is just another reason why the Church's credibility continues to erode. Give me someone who tells the truth over a "pious" Pharisee any day!

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Bridget's avatar

> “Mending the torn fabric of past experience is a redemptive act, the act of the suffering Servant, who did not avoid pain, but took upon himself the iniquity of us all,” the pope said.

Yeah. Maybe if the laity (as individuals) freely choose to pray, fast, and do penance "for the sins of bishops", something good will happen. The people I hang out with are usually doing that "for an end to abortion", and although it happens either very slowly or in very small ways there is visible fruit. In the case of bishops, we have got them seriously outnumbered and if we really buckled down they would not know what hit them, just wake up one morning REALLY HOLY or something (I am unable to speculate.)

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