The vatican seems unable to answer an easy question:
Who has authority to deal with abuse cases? It cannot answer that because who handles the cases depends not on the facts of the case, but who can most effectively give Pope Francis the result he desires for questions of personal whim. Sometimes that personal whim is abhorrence at the ca…
The vatican seems unable to answer an easy question:
Who has authority to deal with abuse cases? It cannot answer that because who handles the cases depends not on the facts of the case, but who can most effectively give Pope Francis the result he desires for questions of personal whim. Sometimes that personal whim is abhorrence at the case. Other times that personal whim is for flagrantly corrupt self-interested reasons.
This is exactly why you have a system of law, where even the sovereigns total authority is inserted into a framework.
518 is interesting, because it says parishes are generally supposed to territorial, but if I’m recalling my classes and the surrounding burdens correctly, doesn’t put a strong burden on lay Catholics to do anything with that information on a day to day basis. A diocese would have to add on their own rules to that to constrain the daily choices of its members, though I’m not familiar enough with Arlington’s particular law and policies to say if they’ve done that.
So often Catholics take a rule or a law and add things on — maybe even generally good but not mandatory things — and present them as mandatory. I think this undermines trust in the rule of law.
This fiasco reminds me of the infamous case of Father Mauro Inzoli, aka Don Mercedes. Yes, the guy with the weakness for expensive cars and teenage boys.
I think this is a bit different, and arguably worse.
The Inzoli issue wasn't so much as friends in high places as it was Francis himself advertised a new approach to abuse cases, one that included mercy for abusers, provided they were deprived of access to continue harm. The Pope and his comms people aggressively promoted this as a logical extension of the Pope's new theology of mercy he was bringing to the Vatican.
That approach flopped when people were scandalized, rightly pointing out there's more to justice than preventing future harm, but of punishing for current harm, and the institution not encouraging future harm by its laxity. The Pope (in a trait that is both admirable and deplorlable) saw this pushback and immediately folded, and just stopped talking about it. There was never any doubt that he was in charge of his pontificate and he was the person making decisions, even wrong ones. Even colossaly stupid ones.
With the current affair, there really is no clear understanding who is in control, who is responsible, and what process they are following. Nature abhors such a vacuum, so if it is not defintiively solved soon, expect everyone to learn lessons from this going forward.
Here in Charlotte,NC one of the largest parishes in the diocese awaits five years a reinstatement of our Pastor who was removed because the former bishop “ questioned his behavior because of three complaints” Imagine 3 complaints out of thousands of parishoners in three parishes he ministered and all three of which the former bishop assigned him to. The priests reputation has been shredded and he still waits for return to ministry. This is clear abuse by the church! And who cares about the thousands of parishoners who have signed petitions,written to the Pope,nuncio,Metropolitan in Fathers’ s defense. No one!!! A CLEAR example of not being able to admit a mistake and now trying to cover by the newly appointed Bishop. You can’t make this stuff up.
The vatican seems unable to answer an easy question:
Who has authority to deal with abuse cases? It cannot answer that because who handles the cases depends not on the facts of the case, but who can most effectively give Pope Francis the result he desires for questions of personal whim. Sometimes that personal whim is abhorrence at the case. Other times that personal whim is for flagrantly corrupt self-interested reasons.
This is exactly why you have a system of law, where even the sovereigns total authority is inserted into a framework.
Yes, the rule of law is important!
518 is interesting, because it says parishes are generally supposed to territorial, but if I’m recalling my classes and the surrounding burdens correctly, doesn’t put a strong burden on lay Catholics to do anything with that information on a day to day basis. A diocese would have to add on their own rules to that to constrain the daily choices of its members, though I’m not familiar enough with Arlington’s particular law and policies to say if they’ve done that.
So often Catholics take a rule or a law and add things on — maybe even generally good but not mandatory things — and present them as mandatory. I think this undermines trust in the rule of law.
This fiasco reminds me of the infamous case of Father Mauro Inzoli, aka Don Mercedes. Yes, the guy with the weakness for expensive cars and teenage boys.
https://www.france24.com/en/20170628-pope-defrocks-don-mercedes-priest-convicted-sex-abuse
He was defrocked, refrocked and defrocked again. It certainly looked like an example of how important it is to have friends in high places.
I think this is a bit different, and arguably worse.
The Inzoli issue wasn't so much as friends in high places as it was Francis himself advertised a new approach to abuse cases, one that included mercy for abusers, provided they were deprived of access to continue harm. The Pope and his comms people aggressively promoted this as a logical extension of the Pope's new theology of mercy he was bringing to the Vatican.
That approach flopped when people were scandalized, rightly pointing out there's more to justice than preventing future harm, but of punishing for current harm, and the institution not encouraging future harm by its laxity. The Pope (in a trait that is both admirable and deplorlable) saw this pushback and immediately folded, and just stopped talking about it. There was never any doubt that he was in charge of his pontificate and he was the person making decisions, even wrong ones. Even colossaly stupid ones.
With the current affair, there really is no clear understanding who is in control, who is responsible, and what process they are following. Nature abhors such a vacuum, so if it is not defintiively solved soon, expect everyone to learn lessons from this going forward.
Here in Charlotte,NC one of the largest parishes in the diocese awaits five years a reinstatement of our Pastor who was removed because the former bishop “ questioned his behavior because of three complaints” Imagine 3 complaints out of thousands of parishoners in three parishes he ministered and all three of which the former bishop assigned him to. The priests reputation has been shredded and he still waits for return to ministry. This is clear abuse by the church! And who cares about the thousands of parishoners who have signed petitions,written to the Pope,nuncio,Metropolitan in Fathers’ s defense. No one!!! A CLEAR example of not being able to admit a mistake and now trying to cover by the newly appointed Bishop. You can’t make this stuff up.
I will 100% take a Bugatti over a Mercedes any day of the week:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Bugatti