Posted on 09/21/2018 12:04:21 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
After many years of sex scandals in the Catholic Church, someone finally blew the whistle in a way that could not be ignored.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó, a retired Vatican envoy to the United States, said on August 22nd that Pope Francis should resign because he had failed to discipline a major sex offender, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. Archbishop Viganó accused McCarrick of having preyed upon Catholic seminarians for many years. He said that Pope Francis “must be the first to set a good example for cardinals and bishops who covered up McCarrick’s abuses.” The Pope, he declared, should “resign along with all of them.”
Viganó certainly got everyone’s attention. And while the Pope has not resigned, he has called a meeting of all bishops who head national Catholic bishops’ conferences to discuss sexual abuse within the Church. The meeting will be held in Rome on Feb. 21-24, 2019.
There’s an old story about an Irishman who came upon a fight in progress and asked, “Is this a private fight, or can anyone join in?” I feel somewhat the same way about the current battle within the Church. Although not a Catholic, I’m concerned about family members and many friends who are. This is a rough time for them, and it could become much worse. I also worry about the way the long-festering problem of sexual abuse by priests affects the pro-life movement. If Rome cannot get its act together, the impact on the movement may become much worse. Moreover, all of the bishops need to hear this message from prolifers: We have not spent decades in trying to save the lives of unborn children so they can be molested when they are a little older.
Here are a few suggestions. First, all cardinals and bishops who have failed to deal with child-molesters and seminarian-molesters should resign, including Pope Francis if Viganó’s allegations prove correct. Whenever the College of Cardinals next meets to select a new pope, the cardinals should give serious consideration to bishops who have dealt honestly and courageously with the abuse problem. No amateurs need apply. This is one of the greatest crises the Catholic Church has ever faced.
Archbishop Viganó might be considered for this demanding job. He cleaned up the Vatican Bank when it was in terrible shape. He spent many years in the Vatican bureaucracy, so it would be easier for him to replace corrupt or incompetent staff than it would be for someone who does not have Vatican experience. Notably pro-life, he takes part in the annual March for Life in Rome, and in 2015 he spoke at the Walk for Life in San Francisco.
The television age and jet travel have led to an expectation that popes will travel a great deal and will also resemble our politicians in other ways. But what the Catholic Church needs now is someone who will stay home in Rome and mind the store. Someone who knows the Vatican bureaucracy and has the courage to make needed changes. At the local level, the Church needs bishops who will forego most travel outside of their dioceses and focus on supervising and supporting their parish priests.
Finally, I believe the Church should consider making celibacy optional for priests. Many problems of today’s priests are likely due not only to sex, but also to sheer loneliness. It is well to remember that there were married priests in early Catholic history. And that priests in Orthodox churches and ministers in Protestant churches have shown that married clergy can be both happy and effective in their work. I suspect they may also be more helpful in marriage counseling than most single people are.
This is not to say, however, that other churches have no problems with sexual abuse of children. Such abuse crosses denominational lines. According to a 2007 article in the Insurance Journal: “The three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members.”
The challenges that all churches face today are enormous, but they need not be disabling. Perhaps the most important virtue right now is courage.
I think her reasoning is well-considered, and I hope you will too.
Good stuff, thanks!
The time for 'talk' is over... we've had 30 years of useless 'talk'.
Here are a few suggestions. First, all cardinals and bishops who have failed to deal with child-molesters and seminarian-molesters should resign, including Pope Francis...
This IS the logical first step...
None-Catholic, but here’s my two cents:
I’m no canon law expert, but I’m pretty sure there’s no requirement that the pope be a cardinal prior to election, so casting a bigger net and looking at non-Cardinals for the papacy is just a matter of the cardinal electors being humble enough to say “none of us has what the church needs right now, let’s look outside our own ranks.”
I think the area that needs the most clean-up is the Curia...it’s become a dumping ground for priests and bishops who have disgraced themselves and need to be put somewhere out of the way.
On top of that, there are probably a lot of good priests in there doing purely administrative work while there are parishes out there struggling without a priest.
Aside from the handful of positions that absolutely require a priest or bishop, there’s no reason why many of these functions couldn’t be performed by lay people.
Current Church law requires that the pope be a bishop, although a male Catholic may be elected. However, he must be consecrated a bishop before he assumes the office of the papacy.
I, for one, would not be desirous of the election of Archbishop Vigano.
Cardinal Arinze would be my choice, but he’s up there in years, unfortunately.
As Bishop Lopes has said, they all knew. They’re all guilty. None should ascend the Throne of Peter.
The Church should be run by a small council of orthodox, successful, retired, widowed married men with children for 40 - 100 years. Create them cardinals if necessary. Clean out the seminaries, and wait until a new generation of priests comes along, repopulate the episcopacy with them, and finally, the papacy.
I think Bishop Fellay would make an excellent Pope
I have been posting that the Western Catholic Church should do what the Eastern Catholics/Orthodox do, have married priests.
Perhaps as a temporary measure, older, widowed men of complete orthodoxy, high virtue, worldly success, and with some theological training could be ordained. But for the long term, the Latin Church should maintain the tradition of ordaining never-married, celibate men.
Read that there will be a meeting of Bishops from the Amazon area of Brazil next year to look at ordaining mature married men to the priesthood. Vert large area of Brazil.
Correction: Very.
I’m sorry but it’s now time to ask Rudy Giuliani if he wants to be Pope.
The Catholic Church needs someone to root out the rats and Rudy’s the guy!
The only 2 or 3 Cardinals I have respect for is Burke,Sarah,and that one from Kazakhstan, I do not know last name from the top of my head.
Archbishop Vigano is a prophetic voice in the wilderness.
Excellent insights from a non-Catholic. Vigano gets my vote, for sure.
The writer should give up the Catholic strategizing. “The Church should consider making celibacy optional for priests.” Wow.
Inversion is the cause of the problems in the Church. Period. Vigano said it.
Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider. He's my favorite. I'd like him as Pope, even though he's not a cardinal. ;-)
I think that Cardinal Sarah would make an excellent replacement for Pope Francis.
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