Posted on 10/04/2018 9:03:41 AM PDT by ebb tide
Catholic Bishop Robert McElroy speaks with the congregation at Our Mother of Confidence in University City. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)
Bishop Robert McElroy may have thought he was bringing good news Monday to 330 Roman Catholics attending his first “listening session” on pedophile priests.
McElroy outlined the sensitive way the San Diego diocese responds to sex-abuse reports. He said the “history of abuse is in the past” with no credible accusations against living priests since 2002.
But in the parish hall of Our Mother of Confidence Catholic Church in University City, dozens demanded McElroy explain what his superiors — even Pope Francis — were doing to address the crisis of confidence in the church and clergy. (One even called for a “new leader” in the Vatican.)
“We’re in a terrible wrenching moment in the life of our church,” McElroy confessed at the outset, citing the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report that reignited the worldwide predator priest scandal.
The 64-year-old bishop also noted an explosive 11-page letter by Italy’s Carlo Maria Viganò, a former Vatican envoy to the United States who alleged a cover-up of sex abuse by resigned Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington.
The Viganò letter was “an attack on Pope Francis” and “ideologically charged,” McElroy said.
But the McCarrick scandal even touched McElroy.
Viganò wrote, in that late August letter, that McElroy “was also well aware of McCarrick’s abuses, as can be seen from a letter sent to him by Richard Sipe on July 28, 2016.”
However, McElroy told his audience: “It’s my conviction that nobody was aware of any allegation against Cardinal McCarrick about abuse of a minor until this past summer.”
“No, no,” murmured members of the crowd.
A handful of audience members grilled McElroy on gay clergy (one of Sipe’s top issues). They asked if the Vatican had a homosexual subculture and whether McElroy would allow gay priests.
The former San Francisco auxiliary bishop said gay men could be ordained if they pledged to be “chaste,” or celibate.
“I want LGBT people to feel welcome in our churches,” McElroy declared, saying any discrimination against that community is unacceptable. But he also said he accepted “everything in the catechism” that opposes homosexuality or sex outside marriage between a man and a woman.
McElroy suggested that altar boys were the most vulnerable population because of “proximity” and not gay priests on the prowl.
He said power and domination were bigger factors at work than homosexuality. Another cause: “psychological underdevelopment.”
McElroy’s liberal views have become a lightning rod for conservative websites such as churchmilitant.com, which alleged that McElroy “quickly marginalized” the Rev. Richard Perozich, a former Old Town priest who published a bulletin making clear “Catholics could not vote in good conscience in line with the Democratic Party.”
After the two-hour event, Rancho Bernardo’s Steve Frost, a former IRS man, said homosexuality was the “elephant in the room.”
“I don’t think a homosexual should be allowed in the priesthood,” he said. “I differ night and day with this guy [McElroy].”
Frost, 73, said allowing gay priests around boys was inviting trouble, like “I wouldn’t take my alcoholic brother to a bar.”
Outside the parish hall, Frost added: “I think where the rubber meets the road is it’s all about politics, it’s all about money and power. And power brings in money. … Allegedly McCarrick brought in millions of dollars to the Catholic Church. And money talks.”
Inside the hall, McElroy was urged to demand that U.S. bishops, at a conference in November, take more aggressive steps to deal with the abuse issue.
One bone of contention was whether the laity invited the molestation crisis by putting priests on pedestals.
“Clericalism is such a part of the blindness that let this happen,” McElroy said. “People have too high a view of priests and attribute to them a status that shouldn’t be.”
Asked if he were satisfied with McElroy’s responses, a San Diego man who gave only his first name — Tomas — said he felt the bishop was dodging some questions. He wished McElroy had answered them more fully.
Joe Quiroz of San Diego said: “What I wanted was a spiritual father angry for his children, and I didn’t feel that he embodied that role.”
He said he thought McElroy had a “CEO or politician mind-set.”
Jamie, who also declined to give her last name, said the bishop didn’t give “tangible examples” of future actions to solve the problems.
He’ll have four more chances this week, though.
Listening sessions are set Wednesday at St. Joseph Cathedral auditorium downtown, Thursday at Our Lady of Grace parish center in El Cajon, Friday at St. Charles Catholic Church parish hall on Saturn Boulevard and Saturday at St. Mary Church parish center in El Centro. (All times are 7 p.m. except El Centro at 9 a.m.)
The final three stops — with Maria Olivia Galvan (diocese chancellor) and the Rev. John Hurley as facilitators — are 7 p.m. Oct. 17 at Church of the Nativity parish hall in Rancho Santa Fe, 7 p.m. Oct. 18 at St. Gabriel Church in Poway and 10 a.m. Nov. 5 at the Joan B. Kroc Institute at the University of San Diego.
Ping
Obviously, Bishop McElroy thinks we are still living in the era when the vast majority of the laity could neither read nor write. With this comment, McElroy rightfully loses all credibility.
Lessay you needed marriage counseling from your Priest:
HOW could he help you if he were gay..?
From the article ..McElroy told his audience: “It’s my conviction that nobody was aware of any allegation against Cardinal McCarrick about abuse of a minor until this past summer.”
I believe that McElroy is consciously and deliberately lying.
McElroy demonstartes the sleaziness of a politician and is even part of the “Resistance” movement — his answers are altogether political now, as he is only trying to retain his position and power as a bishop.
His answers regarding McCarrick are lies. He ignores to this day Richard Sipe’s (RIP) explicit warnings.
SHAME. Bishop McElroy must be rejected, ejected from the clergy and criminally charged in a court of law.
It’s great that the audience let him have it. I’ll bet he wishes his other “listening” sessions were not on the calendar.
Well said.
Bishop McElroy will be or has been at Our Lady of Grace Church today. Brian Sipe, former quarterback for the Cleveland Browns (NFL MVP, 1980), went to Our Lady of Grace Catholic school. I don't know if he is related to the late Richard Sipe.
I don't know that it is an outright lie. I think what he specifically said could be true if you read it closely. He is very specific in describing what they didn't know. He chose his words carefully.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.