And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
(1.3.343), Richard
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
(1.3.343), Richard
It's already ugly.
In some sections of the Internet, that is. Although the always balanced Rocco Palmo published a letter from Cardinal Mahony in response to the action taken by Archbishop Gomez, removing the Cardinal's administrative duties, a subject everyone appears to have been discussing online. For those calling for Mahony's dismissal from the College of Cardinals, I doubt that is likely to happen.
Rocco Palmo:
In Rome, meanwhile, the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, was quoted by Catholic News Service as saying that the "measure taken by the archbishop naturally regards his archdiocese and not other duties that Cardinal Mahony has received from the pope in the Roman Curia."
Mahony is currently a member of three Curial dicasteries. As a general rule, cardinals hold those seats until, just like one's Conclave rights, automatically losing them on turning 80.
As previously noted, while Gomez almost certainly consulted with the Vatican on his plans and received a favorable response before making the moves public, any regulation of the universal faculties granted to cardinals by canon law is subject to the discretion of the Holy See alone. Most specifically, Canon 357 stipulates that "In those matters which pertain to their own person, cardinals living outside of Rome and outside their own diocese are exempt from the power of governance of the bishop of the diocese in which they are residing." - Cardinal Mahony hits back
Cardinal Mahony also defends himself saying, "Nothing prepared me to deal with this..." going on to detail the consultation and directives he sought from peers, the bishops, experts, and so on. Interestingly enough he mentions his graduate work never included anything related to child sexual abuse.
Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In two years [1962—1964] spent in graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children. While there was some information dealing with child neglect, sexual abuse was never discussed.Perhaps it is true - perhaps. Yet I think that statement offers a bit of insight into the exaggerated emphasis placed upon textbook education and academic degrees over personal morality and fidelity to Catholic teaching when it comes to the employment of Church-people and the promotion of career clerics. The Church at times seems to have become a sort of half-way house for the academically institutionalized - those who can't function unless they have some sort of textbook example or precedent instructing them how to act.
I thought the Holy Spirit was supposed to be guiding things?
BTW - Mahony is a Cardinal Archbishop - he "is subject to the discretion of the Holy See alone."
Terry, I think you hit the nail on the head! I was perplexed myself by the Cardinal's comment that nothing had prepared him for dealing with this sin. Was he paying attention when he was being taught his catechism? Was he taught his catechism? Scandalous, no? Or perhaps I'm too simplistic and my mind works (if at all) too simplistically?
ReplyDeleteThis is the part that caught my eye, from Cardinal Mahony's response:
ReplyDeleteWhen you were formally received as our Archbishop on May 26, 2010, you began to become aware of all that had been done here over the years for the protection of children and youth. You became our official Archbishop on March 1, 2011 and you were personally involved with the Compliance Audit of 2012—again, in which we were deemed to be in full compliance.
Not once over these past years did you ever raise any questions about our policies, practices, or procedures in dealing with the problem of clergy sexual misconduct involving minors.
I have stated time and time again that I made mistakes, especially in the mid-1980s. I apologized for those mistakes, and committed myself to make certain that the Archdiocese was safe for everyone.
That sounds to me like Cardinal Mahony is rebuking Archbishop Gomez for not saying something sooner if he had something to say.
Also, as has been pointed out elsewhere, there is a difference between "mistakes" and deliberate decisions.
Quite honestly, in these situations I pray for everyone involved. There are victims who were the targets of sins that cry out to heaven at the hands of those who work, in persona Christi. But we are also to pray for the conversion of sinners - be they the men who violated young people, or men who had lousy judgment and made bad decisions that increased the suffering of victims.
For me the most difficult part is that Card. Mahony is right; his textbooks didn't have info on child molestation because it simply wasn't an issue that society dealt with, it was dealt with in the family. Nobody talked about it, much less called the cops. He had no model to help him because the same experts the Church consulted were giving the same bad advice to others.
ReplyDeleteDoes a Bishop need a textbook to know that children should not be molested or that the abuser is a criminal who should be kept away from children at all costs?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the expert the bishops consulted with was himself a child molester who advocated the removal of the priest from his victims rather than the removal of the priest from any potential victims. You're holding Card Mahony accountable for current standards for events that took place when the standard was to sweep molestation under the rug and not deal with it.
ReplyDeleteDid school districts, student athletic leagues and the boy scouts need a textbook to know? Obviously as they still have problems that haven't been dealt with; abusers are shifted from group to group, still free to abuse with nobody calling the cops.