Posted on 06/05/2002 10:11:58 PM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:54:33 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick predicted yesterday that the nation's Catholic bishops will reject a sexual-misconduct policy when they meet next week in Dallas because it allows priests guilty of one past offense to remain in the ministry.
"I think our people are saying 'zero tolerance' forward and backwards," he told reporters, adding that he personally favors the proposal outlined on Tuesday. The proposal advocates the automatic defrocking of priests only if the sexual abuse occurred from this week forth.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
"I think our people are saying 'zero tolerance' forward and backwards,"
Gee, you think so? What's the mater, have you got a hearing impairment? That is what they're saying. Or when you refer to our people do you exclude parishioners? I guess they just aren't your kind of people? Tell me it isn't so.
How many trial balloons have Church officials floated to test the waters? Nine? Ten? Make it even dozen? I don't know, I lost track a while ago.
Some prelates, such as Baltimore's Cardinal William Keeler, oppose what detractors have named the "one strike, you're in" policy.
Well now, isn't that special. "One strike, you're in". Gee whiz, I wonder where that came from. Could it be that when a priest sexually abused a child Church officials let them in the cover-up club. Some people, when they see a spade they call it a spade. I call that being honest. Cardinal William Keeler calls them detractors. It's the priests and cover-up brigade that continue their attempts to hide sex crimes and sex-abuse criminals that are the detractors of honesty.
"A lot of that is going to depend on the media. If they keep saying the bishops aren't paying attention, it will take longer. If the media says we see they've tried to pull this together, then our people will get the message.
Noting quite like using the external authority of the media to do the bidding for Bishops. That's quite an admission of lost authority in the eyes of the parishioners.
"I believe the Catholic people of the United States really want to trust the bishops," he said. "They have to see now we are really trying. We are saying: 'We have been too slow; we have been too dull; we have been too hesitant. Now, here is what we have done. Believe us.'"
He's saying: "See, the media believes us so you should believe us too." There's one rather daunting problem with that. Prior to this scandal the people had far less trust and respect in the media than the Church and Bishops.
So sad. So very sad to have plummeted lower than the media and rely on them to pull you back up. I don't understand how the media could rise the Bishops in the eyes of Catholics from below the media to above the media. I mean, it's like a supervisor promoting a sales clerk to upper management. It doesn't work putting the cart before the horse.
Prepared by the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse, it will be voted on June 14 at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Dallas.
A day or two after the results of the vote are made available look for a post titled, "From The Outside Looking In"
I.e, how many 'strikes' forward and back (sheesh! - there's no good way to say this) for two consenting adult priests, before they're tossed?
McCarrick still doesn't get it. A drunken priest who rapes a minor belongs behind bars, not behind the collar. If full restitution is not made to society as well as to the victim, the "debt" is still due and payable, statute of limitations nothwithstanding. And I include those who covered up for such a priest.
Full restitution. Nothing else cuts it. That priest and his co-conspirators walked a child through the fire. Now they must walk through that fire themselves.
You are sooooo right. They need to step willingly into the fire and walk the walk.
No, more like Satan WAS having a field day, letting evil, immoral, degenerates run amok. Now GOD is cleaning house, by exposing the rampant SIN.
But older priests should get some leeway, he said, and they should not be removed from all ministry because of one long-ago incident that has not been repeated.
Make up your mind, Cardinal. The rules should apply to older priests as well. Who is going to define "older"? They shouldn't get a pass, and can we be absolutely positive that there was only one incident? Sending them to a monastery - a cloistered one - is marginally acceptable.
And what about the Homos? There's the real problem!
"Hi, Bishop. Yeah, this is Fr. Bobby. I only got a minute before I take the Youth Group to Disney. Is the phone on speaker? No? ...good. Listen, I got really drunk last Sunday watching the Jets beat the Colts in the Super Bowl and I kinda did a bad thing. I went outside the rectory to take a leak and I saw little Stevie Wilson....Yes, Mike's kid...yeah, the fourth grader..anywho...I was feeling kinda randy so I grabbed him and hauled him behind the bushes and I raped him...I feel like that was a mistake...I hope this won't cause me any trouble...No, there haven't been any others...Yes, I'm positive.... You can trust me, I'll never do that again...Huh, what?...Ok, sure...I can get you a Mickey Mouse hat with the ears when I am there...Thanks, Bishop"
The more I listen to Hannity comment about Catholicism, the more I realize he was a lousy student at that seminary he attended.
The only way that this Catholic will ever have any confidence in the Bishops is when they begin to rid the Church of the source of the abusers i.e. homosexual priest!
"In past instances where one incident occurred, the offender will have to satisfy several criteria for him to remain a priest in good standing: a) he must be diagnosed as not being a pedophile b) he must be able to demonstrate to a review board that he is free of criminal and civil claims c) he has to agree to counseling and d) he must accept public disclosure of his offense. If he does not meet these and other criteria, he cannot return to public ministry, he cannot wear the priest’s collar and he cannot celebrate Mass in public.
I just read this at tcrnews.com in a reaction piece by Catholic League. If this is accurate, it isn't too bad. I can't imagine any priest agreeing to have his pederasty made public AND, if he did, who would go to his Parish?
The same works-and-liberation Catholics who held that impeachment was "just about sex." There are millions of them.
LOL Touche
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