www.suntimes.com
Posted on 06/22/2002 8:15:27 AM PDT by Polycarp
June 21, 2002 BY ANDREW GREELEY
American Catholics are not likely to be convinced that the reforms the bishops voted for in Dallas last week mean anything unless there are resignations in the hierarchy. Surveys by both Gallup and the Wall Street Journal indicate that Catholics want the pope to remove bishops who have reassigned pedophile priests to parish work. The position is logical: If there is to be zero tolerance for offending priests, then there should be zero tolerance for offending bishops.
There apparently weren't enough votes for Cardinal Francis George's proposal that sanctions be applied to bishops, too, though he said he expected that it would come up again in November.
It would be hypocritical to expel priest abusers and not expel the bishops who were accessories to their offenses before and after the fact. ''One strike and you're out'' should apply to bishops, too.
The problem is that it will be hard enough to get the norms that accompany the Dallas charter by the Roman Curia without adding sanctions against bishops to the package. The pope appoints bishops, and no one but the pope, it will be said, can remove them. This pope does not seem likely to remove cardinals from cities like New York and Boston, nor do they seem likely to remove themselves. Until that happens, the surveys suggest, the laity will still remain skeptical.
Despite that problem, the bishops did a good job at Dallas. Unfortunately, it's 16 years too late. If they had not torpedoed the plan submitted to them at St. John's abbey in 1986 (with Cardinal Bernard Law allegedly in lead of the opponents), this terrible scandal might have been avoided.
The Dallas plan is harsh. There is no room for flexibility in the cases of, say, retired priests who are accused of something four decades ago. Unfortunately, the laity won't trust bishops any more when they try to be flexible on this problem. Perhaps as the years go on and bishops re-establish credibility, there will be a little more trust for them to make the very rare exception to the rule. Not now.
It would appear that the accused priests have some rights: the right to counsel and the right to appeal. One hopes that they also have the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty and to confront their accusers--rights that Americans take for granted even if canon law does not. One also hopes that there will be clear-cut norms for admissible evidence.
The innocent have been denounced before (like Cardinal Joseph Bernardin) and are likely to be denounced again. If the bishops move to the other extreme and begin to assume that a charge is prima facie evidence of guilt (as the media do), then they will open the door to an extended witch hunt--like the right-wing attack on Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who, whatever his faults might have been, was still one of the best bishops in America.
The Dallas charter is not the end of an ignominious chapter in the history of Catholicism, but it might be the beginning of the end. The media are not likely to ease up the pressure. On the contrary, they will search desperately for flaws and weakness. No human reform is ever perfect. This one--especially the roles given to such distinguished laity as Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating and Illinois Appellate Court Justice Anne Burke in positions of major national responsibility--is better than what might have reasonably been expected six months ago.
The commission on which they will serve in effect will monitor bishops in years to come and report on those who do not honor the charter.
I feel a little strange when I praise (even with a cautious two cheers) anything bishops have done. Yet I must admit that this time they have happily surprised me. They surprised me especially in their willingness to listen and learn from the brave victims who had the courage to come to Dallas and confront them.
Finally, I'm not sure that the Dallas charter would have emerged in its present form were it not for the leadership of Bishop Wilton Gregory of Belleville, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Some say that he will almost certainly get the red hat for the success of the Dallas meeting. Others say that the Curia will never forgive him and he will remain in Belleville for the rest of his life. The Curia never forgets.
E-mail: agreel@aol.com
Zero tolerance also should apply to bishops
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Well...I agree with him as far as the title goes...but this paragraph puts things back in perspective. Bernardin innocent and Remmy the bestbishop in America??? LOL!
Don't grant him any free ride yet. Anyone who uses this characterization is part of the continuing homosexual coverup. Notice his praise of Cardinal Weakland.
HA! HA!
I had the same sensation as I was reading this Polycarp!
However, when he made this statement:
like the right-wing attack on Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who, whatever his faults might have been, was still one of the best bishops in America.
I snapped back and remembered this was Andrew Greeley! Sorry Father (and it's a stretch for me to write that) but it is Orthodox Catholics that have a problem with Weakland. And if you think taking nearly half a million in 1980 dollars from parishners and giving it to a Bishop's blabber mouth boy toy makes him the best Bishop in America, well, it just reaffirms that you and I are not in the same Church!
Just when I started, oddly enough, to begin agreeing with Greeley, he goes and throws this t*** into the punchbowl and brings me back to reality.
I agree, but as that seems to include The Pope and most of the Curia, how do you propose to accomplish it?
So9
If stealing half a million dollars from little old ladies, who forgo necessities to put money in the collection plate, to pay off his boyfriend does not disqualify him as "one of the best"-
what must the worst be like?
Oh please, no! Weakland was an Archbishop, but he never received a red hat (became a cardinal).
Hmmm...
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