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Sue Korlan's avatar

But if a semi-failed state can't enforce proper behavior in its populace I don't understand why the Church can't require a member of its hierarchy to live in a monastery somewhere without any contact with the world as a form of punishment for his or her sins.

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KP's avatar

She can most certainly do that independent of a state, but if he decides not to obey the Church, you donтАЩt expect a bunch of nuns to bar him from leaving? And the Church canтАЩt call the police and say тАЬoi, Fr nastybuisness has left the premises against our instruction, can you drag him back please?тАЭ In a liberal

Democracy. In a semi-failed state it would depend on how much the local bishop is willing to bribe the police.

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Sue Korlan's avatar

Usually friars rather than nuns. (Think McCarrick.) But I suppose how much the local bishop might be willing to give the police would depend on how much trouble the incarcerated had created.

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KP's avatar

Maybe. McCarrick, assuming his faculties were intact, he is within his rights as a citizen to accuse the church of violating his rights and could hobble out into the world with no one able to stop him or enforce the ChurchтАЩs penalties, especially now he is laicised. If this were a less developed country, youтАЩd still have major issues if your penalties are only enforceable by the capriciousness of bribery, assuming the police were not in cahoots with Fr nastybusiness in the first place.

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