It has been a long 3 1/2 months (and more to come) since the most recent scandal of cover-up by Bishops exploded upon the scene. Not much has been accomplished or resolved, much to my and many other’s frustration and disgust. If C Y A letters from bishops (written by their lawyers), and statements by some bishops as they hold their pectoral cross professing “shock” and “dismay” are to be the only effort at resolution, then, I guess, we have “overcome” the issue. However, nothing can be further from the truth. The puss is still in the wound of this scandal and only certain remedies will work as a healing balm for this cancer on the Body of Christ!
The bishops of the United States will be gathering this week in Baltimore to address this issue (among other topics). I wanted to address what will be publicized as a result of these discussions, even though they have yet to meet. Sadly, I know how Church politics works.
1) The bishops will tell us how hard they have worked to reduce child abuse in the Church. This is a true statement. Since the Dallas charter in 2003/04, the actual cases of prosecuted abuse by Church officials has been reduced to about 7 nationwide. So , we have gone in a much better direction. However, the current scandal is not about child abuse, but about homosexual predation of teenage boys between the ages of 14 and 18 by pervert priests and the cover-up in certain dioceses of homosexual cabals of predatory priests and bishops. The current crisis is about homosexual activity, the breaking of vows, a failure of chastity and a cover-up. It is also about adult on adult homosexual activity between some priests, the preying upon of seminarians and the looking away of this perverse behavior by those entrusted with protecting young people, future priests, and adults. This is the real crisis! Good luck hearing this from the bishop’s conference in Baltimore.
2) The conference will speak about how bishops will now be held accountable to a lay board who will investigate any suggestion of abuse. The only problem is that no bishop is accountable to the laity or another bishop. Only the pope can censure a bishop or remove him. When the pope finds his voice again (he has decided to remain mostly silent in these issues), perhaps real investigations will happen. I’m not very hopeful in this regard.
3) The bishops will say, “We want a full investigation of the former Archbishop Cardinal McCarrick who knew what and when.” Great. But, the iceberg of cover-up goes a lot deeper. Let’s get it all done so that we can move forward in Christ.
Change will only occur when honestly, transparency, truthfulness and obedience to Christ reign. Let’s see what the Holy Spirit will do!