Perhaps this is a question for our canon lawyers, but do sexual harassment laws exist in the Church? Is there anything (canonically) that would be analogous to civil laws here? If not, that is a huge oversight.
So is the issue here that the accusations have no semblance of truth, and thus a trial is not warranted OR is it that the alleged behavior does not rise to the level of a potential delict, and thus a trial is not warranted?
In practice I would guess the answer is that it depends on the diocese and on personal relationships.
This is a success story (in some sense) for "diocesan-sponsored safe environment training", since it enabled someone to recognize (though much later) behavior that should have been reported at the time. But it also highlights that training alone is not a silver bullet.
No M’am. A priest or deacon would be immediately suspended, a priest forced out of his rectory and little to no updates on the investigation. Whether the Cardinal is guilty or not, he is not treated as most other clerics would be.
A priest or deacon would be handled by the Bishop. I'd hope that most Bishops would recognize the cause of scandal and take the accusation more seriously, but there are definitely some out there who wouldn't.
They absolutely shouldn't. But only the Holy See can remove a Bishop. Accusations against a priest or deacon will be taken seriously if the Bishop in charge takes those allegations seriously. Allegations against a Bishop will be taken seriously only when the Holy See decides to take them seriously.
> A priest or deacon would be immediately suspended
For an allegation that he behaved inappropriately (in a prior decade without any witnesses) to someone who was 25 years old at the time and is a woman? Swift and effective action after a single report sounds extremely unlikely to me in practice unless the bishop was already mad at the guy for some unrelated reason. Once it got to the point of a lawsuit and dirty laundry was being aired in public, then yes, probably somebody would do something, though it's not clear to me what that something would necessarily be (if we include Knoxville anything is possible.)
This story infuriates me as a parishoner ina parish where our beloved pastor was removed for complaints out of 32,000 parishoners. Try finding a group of 20 and no complainant! We have written as parishoners to the nuncio,the regional Bishop in charge,the current bishop,and the pope with one computer generated response. Have even written to Cardinal Ouelette no response.Perhaps We now know why. There is a definite double standard for Bishops and Cardinals. This Cardinal stayed in office the entire time this was so called investigated and we wait 32 months with no word even of how are pastor is.For a complaint!! Really? Some of us were born at night but not last night! Justice and Mercy???? Only for the clerically elite!
Perhaps this is a question for our canon lawyers, but do sexual harassment laws exist in the Church? Is there anything (canonically) that would be analogous to civil laws here? If not, that is a huge oversight.
So is the issue here that the accusations have no semblance of truth, and thus a trial is not warranted OR is it that the alleged behavior does not rise to the level of a potential delict, and thus a trial is not warranted?
Seems like the latter.
Would the same standards apply to a priest or deacon???
In practice I would guess the answer is that it depends on the diocese and on personal relationships.
This is a success story (in some sense) for "diocesan-sponsored safe environment training", since it enabled someone to recognize (though much later) behavior that should have been reported at the time. But it also highlights that training alone is not a silver bullet.
No M’am. A priest or deacon would be immediately suspended, a priest forced out of his rectory and little to no updates on the investigation. Whether the Cardinal is guilty or not, he is not treated as most other clerics would be.
A priest or deacon would be handled by the Bishop. I'd hope that most Bishops would recognize the cause of scandal and take the accusation more seriously, but there are definitely some out there who wouldn't.
But why should a bishop be treated differently?
They absolutely shouldn't. But only the Holy See can remove a Bishop. Accusations against a priest or deacon will be taken seriously if the Bishop in charge takes those allegations seriously. Allegations against a Bishop will be taken seriously only when the Holy See decides to take them seriously.
> A priest or deacon would be immediately suspended
For an allegation that he behaved inappropriately (in a prior decade without any witnesses) to someone who was 25 years old at the time and is a woman? Swift and effective action after a single report sounds extremely unlikely to me in practice unless the bishop was already mad at the guy for some unrelated reason. Once it got to the point of a lawsuit and dirty laundry was being aired in public, then yes, probably somebody would do something, though it's not clear to me what that something would necessarily be (if we include Knoxville anything is possible.)
Now that's transparency!
This story infuriates me as a parishoner ina parish where our beloved pastor was removed for complaints out of 32,000 parishoners. Try finding a group of 20 and no complainant! We have written as parishoners to the nuncio,the regional Bishop in charge,the current bishop,and the pope with one computer generated response. Have even written to Cardinal Ouelette no response.Perhaps We now know why. There is a definite double standard for Bishops and Cardinals. This Cardinal stayed in office the entire time this was so called investigated and we wait 32 months with no word even of how are pastor is.For a complaint!! Really? Some of us were born at night but not last night! Justice and Mercy???? Only for the clerically elite!