I'm grateful that the Pillar is publishing articles like this and that one of the former seminarians was willing to go on the record. I believe we are almost totally reliant on public, extra-hierarchical pressure to promote any sort of accountability within the Church, so the more of this, the better.
I'm grateful that the Pillar is publishing articles like this and that one of the former seminarians was willing to go on the record. I believe we are almost totally reliant on public, extra-hierarchical pressure to promote any sort of accountability within the Church, so the more of this, the better.
I see in this story something I see under the surface of a lot of Catholic scandals: Christianity is all about forgiveness, but there also seems to be a strong intuition that any kind of public disclosure of sin is a cruel and unusual punishment that violates every idea of Christian mercy. So we get... secret forgiveness. Not good!
I was just thinking the other day, what ever happened with Monsignor Burrill. He resigned, USCCB didn't say anything, and it just kind of got memory holed.
Indeed indeed. Spot on. I guess there might also be a vaguely laudable, but deeply misguided and perverted, element of not wanting to cause scandal, not wanting to lead believers into despair, doubt or turning away from the church in disgust, that the act of letting these crimes be known be a stumbling block for the innocents. But of course, letting this fester in secret is now causing exactly that scandal, but much much bigger.
I'm grateful that the Pillar is publishing articles like this and that one of the former seminarians was willing to go on the record. I believe we are almost totally reliant on public, extra-hierarchical pressure to promote any sort of accountability within the Church, so the more of this, the better.
I see in this story something I see under the surface of a lot of Catholic scandals: Christianity is all about forgiveness, but there also seems to be a strong intuition that any kind of public disclosure of sin is a cruel and unusual punishment that violates every idea of Christian mercy. So we get... secret forgiveness. Not good!
I was just thinking the other day, what ever happened with Monsignor Burrill. He resigned, USCCB didn't say anything, and it just kind of got memory holed.
Hopefully he will be off the list for promotion to bishop, at least.
One can never be certain though. Maybe he will just have to wait a few more years until "James Martinism" has been made more mainstream in the church.
Or maybe they just make him bishop in Germany.
Indeed indeed. Spot on. I guess there might also be a vaguely laudable, but deeply misguided and perverted, element of not wanting to cause scandal, not wanting to lead believers into despair, doubt or turning away from the church in disgust, that the act of letting these crimes be known be a stumbling block for the innocents. But of course, letting this fester in secret is now causing exactly that scandal, but much much bigger.