About 6 months ago, I blogged here about the "Predatory Priest Problem" in the Catholic Church (8/31/'18). With the recent DEFROCKING of former U.S. Cardinal McCarrick, over sex abuse issues, it's time to blog about this sad subject again. (The photo above is the front cover from one of our New Jersey papers, where McCarrick was once Archbishop of Newark, by the way.)
DEFROCKING simply means that McCarrick can no longer fufill clerical duties (such as distributing Communion) in the Catholic Church. Sadly, he can still PARTAKE of that Sacrament as a Catholic in good standing, however. In short, he's been "Laicized," which means he's simply a member of the LAITY now....a "common Catholic" again. It is thought that he's the first Cardinal ever to be defrocked for sexual sins, and the first to be Laicized for ANY reason in about 100 years, from what I've read.
But honestly, to take away McCarrick's ability to "work" doesn't seem like much of a punishment for an 88 year old who was retired ANYway. And frankly, though I'm an EX-Catholic since 1975, I'd like to see him excommunicated from the Church. So if I could ask questions of the Pope, I'd start by saying "Historically, others have been booted from the Church for far less 'offenses,' why is McCarrick getting off so easy?"
A few other questions remain. For example: the Pope who defrocked McCarrick, according to witnesses, may have known about the allegations (dating back to the 1970s) when he became Pope. Therefore, the 1970s Nixon-era mantra of "What did he (the Pope) know and when did he know it?" seems like a question that Catholics should demand an answer to, from Pope Francis.
Also, why'd it take SO LONG to nail McCarrick when all the reports say his abuses over decades were an "open secret"? Hey, "better late than never" is all well and good, but how'd he rise so high in the hierarchy unless OTHERS were compromised WITH him, or covered up FOR him?
Sadly, there's more.
I would also ask the Pope, if I were able to, "Was McCarrick's Defrocking deliberately botched so that if his victims ever sue him in court, he has an escape hatch?" Bear with me here. You see, the "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," THE POPE'S GUARDIAN OF ALLEGED DOCTRINAL PURITY mind you, found McCarrick guilty of "solicitation in the sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and adults..." on Jan.11th. Really, it's the SEVENTH Commandment, the one prohibiting adultery and all sexual sins, that McCarrick violated. The SIXTH Commandment forbids MURDER. At first, I thought that the Pope's people just didn't know the Ten Commandments and made a mistake, or that the Catholics changed God's Word and rearranged the numerical order of the Commandments. (I even checked the two current Catholic Bibles I own, and they both affirm that the Seventh Commandment is STILL The Seventh Commandment in Catholicism!) But having thought about it, how can ANYONE who knows ANYTHING about the Bible be so ignorant? How can a mistake of that magnitude occur in a historical process that will be scrutinized around the world? And I'm no lawyer, mind you, but I wonder if McCARRICK'S lawyers won't make hay out of this "mistake" and claim he was defrocked unjustly, on improper grounds, using the wrong Commandment as justification for Defrocking, thus undercutting a key element of any potential legal action against him. Makes you wonder, eh? WAS the Defrocking deliberately botched to protect McCarrick.......AGAIN?
What reason in the universe does anyone have to trust these slippery snakes? Not only are the severity, the delay, and the DETAILS of the punishment in question, but (in the last place) so is the TIMING of it. For you see, this week the Pope is meeting with Bishops from around the world to discuss "the entrenched problems of clerical sex abuse and systematic cover-ups by the Catholic Church's hierarchy," Francis seems to be "on the ropes" regarding his Papacy...(I guess The First Latin-American Pope isn't working out too well for the Church just like the First African-American President didn't work out great for US. Leaders should never be elected in order to "make history," but only if they're QUALIFIED to lead.) Yes, the POPE is on the ROPES and so is the Catholic Church...otherwise why would the Pope be pushing "CHRISLAM" as he prepares to visit Morocco? He must be desperate to go "fishing" for new Catholics in a Muslim "lake" by pretending to find common ground between Christianity and Islam. So I would ask the Pope, were I able to, "Did you only discipline McCarrick because you knew the Bishops at the summit were going to DEMAND it, ANYway?" If that's the case, McCarrick's Defrocking gives new meaning to the phrase "Papal Bull."
WAS the Pope's slap-on-the-wrist, long overdue, loophole-containing Defrocking of McCarrick done ONLY a pre-emptive strike to try to satisfy the Bishops he's meeting with in Rome, this week? Maybe so, maybe not...but it's ONE of the lingering questions about Cardinal McCarrick's Defrocking that TIME will hopefully answer, even if the Pope, himself, will not. After all, Catholics are not supposed to question the one who claims to be infallible in matters of faith and morals and I, as an EX-Catholic, would never be allowed to. But GOD has said our sins will find us out, and that includes ALL of us....even the Pope.
God, in Time, will reveal, what the Vatican now conceals.
No comments:
Post a Comment