Reporting Systems are Fine; What We Need is Strong Leadership
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Reporting Systems are Fine; What We Need is Strong Leadership

Cardinal Seán O'Malley
[lead dropcap="yes”]Cardinal Seán O'Malley is instituting a new system for reporting misconduct by bishops of the Archdiocese of Boston. Of course, it's mainly symbolic, but it sends a challenge to his brother bishops in the US and beyond to take similar action.[/lead]

The new phone number and web site is similar to one that was set up in 2011 to report financial misconduct in the archdiocese from a company that specializes in setting up whistleblower systems for corporations and organizations.

At the moment, the only people it covers are the cardinal himself and his auxiliaries and his authority to institute it comes from his sovereign authority as bishop.

And therein lies a problem. The system exists at the will of the man who sits in the chair. Any successor of his could turn it off at a whim. The same is true for every other diocese.

The cure for these situations, like that of Ted McCarrick, the former cardinal and laicized cleric, is not that we need a reporting system. The solution can only come from having leaders willing to take action against those who undermine the Church, steep themselves in sin, and drive the nails through Christ into the cross by their abuse of the innocent or protecting those who do.

Cardinal Seán's action is a good first step, but there are no easy solutions. What we need is for the Holy Spirit to bring us new strong and Christ-like bishops and for that we can only pray.

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