Turn in your cappa!
So they are going to take McCarrick's cappa back?
The literal term is laicization - return to the lay state, or more correctly, "‘
dismissed from the clerical state,’ because this is a juridical status.” That's the news today - that the Pope wants him to be a sort of trophy to offer to the bishops when they gather for their conference in February. That's so Law and Order talk. Secular news is promoting the story.
Pope Francis, who has the final say in the case, wants it completed before heads of national Catholic churches meet at the Vatican from Feb. 21-24 to discuss what is now a global sexual abuse crisis, three sources said.
The meeting offers a chance for him to respond to criticism from victims of abuse that he has stumbled in his handling of the crisis and has not done enough to make bishops accountable.
“It (the defrocking of McCarrick) would be like a trophy to show that the pope is indeed serious about dealing with this. That is the process that seems to be unfolding,” said Kurt Martens, professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America in Washington. - Read more here.
For me the biggest problem with McCarrick is the corruption, not so much the sexual predation of young men and priests. Some have even claimed the occasions with 16 year old could have been considered consensual. People call it a gay cabal or gay lobby, which protected McCarrick and helped him climb the ladder. The emphasis is placed on gay, the homosexual lobby. Nevertheless, after months of thinking about this, it seems to me it really goes back to clericalism, power, privilege and money. The sexual crimes seem to me to be a byproduct, a symptom of the corruption. The fact that McCarrick was a major fundraiser for the Church seems to me to account for his being protected and supported, and covered for when rumors and allegations emerged.
I too got caught up in the homosexual blame game, but the situation could just as well have involved sexual predation of women. No doubt, the secrets and lies associated with closeted homosexuality probably motivated SSA priests and bishops to look the other way, or even deny - refusing to believe - the stories of McCarrick going after seminarians, and so on. It's similar to Maciel, founder of the Legion. People were covering for him and refusing to believe he led a double life. He wasn't 'defrocked' - rather he was sent into exile to do penance. A similar case involving
Fr. Gino Burresi resulted in his exile to a life of prayer and penance.
Calling for public repentance and confession is not any one's call, save for the Pope. Reduction to the clerical state seems unlikely to me, McCarrick most likely has repented - resigning his title as cardinal seems to me to signify that. Going into solitude to do penance seems to me to be enough.
I doubt the Pope is willing to make McCarrick a scapegoat to atone for the abuse crisis, much less as an example to reform the clergy. The McCarrick story points to a more serious corruption in the clergy. How crazy is it to imagine a young man claiming "McCarrick used his authority to coerce them to sleep with him when they were adult seminarians studying for the priesthood." What? Why? Adult men coerced? Trying to get through seminary by cooperating that way? Where is their faith? Why would they think they were qualified to enter priesthood with that type of compromise? You see, I don't know the answers to those questions, but it clearly points to corruption stemming from a crisis of faith and morals.
Oh. I could be wrong.
Song for this post
here.
