I’m not sure what the “Media Monitors Network” is but based on the articles they have posted on their web site, they appear to be left-wing nutroots 9/11-conspiracy pro-Islamic-terrorist anti-American moonbats. Which makes it doubly ironic that I find myself agreeing with an article that calls for the resignation and prosecution of bishops who facilitated the Scandal and participated in cover-ups.
Comparing the Scandal to the Enron disaster, Nicholas Vakkur says that the only way to restore the trust of the faithful is to ensure that the guilty are punished. He points out, quite accurately, that very few bishops who were complicit in shuffling about predatory priests and lied about it have suffered the loss of their episcopal sees and none have been prosecuted. You certainly haven’t heard their brother bishops calling them out in public. (According to a Dallas Morning News survey in 2002, while only a single-digit percentage of priests committed sexual-abuse, about two-thirds of then-serving bishops had enabled it in one way or another. You might dispute exact percentages or individual bishops, but I don’t think you can dispute the disparate ratios.)
One of the biggest disappointments in the whole Scandal has been the inability or lack of desire by bishops—even those we consider to be “good”, by which we mean orthodox and holy and personally admirable—to hold their brother bishops publicly accountable, even to call for them to resign.
The proximate cause for Vakkur’s article is the most recent signs that Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles may be “shading” the truth, depending on who he’s talking to at the moment.
That Vakkur’s analysis is flawed because of its overly secular approach to the Church does not mitigate the truth of his conclusion: It will be difficult to regain the trust of many pew-sitting Catholics until we’ve done more than institute new policies in the Church. We need accountability as well.
That even the purveyors of a tin-foil-hat conspiracy-minded web site that has no love for the Catholic Church can see it is evidence of the need.
Technorati Tags: Catholic | bishops | scandal | sex abuse | clergy | priest | accountability |
