Posted on 04/16/2002 8:54:13 AM PDT by history_matters
Eight American cardinals, some of them under siege in the wake of the spiraling sexual abuse scandal, have been ordered to an extraordinary meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican next week to discuss the exploding tempest.
``I can't think of anything exactly like it,'' said Avery Cardinal Dulles, a theologian at Fordham University in New York and one of the foremost authorities on Catholic church history. ``I don't remember any case where he's called the cardinals and bishops together (but) prompt action is needed at the present time to restore public confidence.''
Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer representing victims of convicted former priest John Geoghan and other alleged clergy offenders, said the session shows how ``widespread'' the problem is in the United States. He said the meeting has also been encouraging for some victims.
``The recognition by the pope of sexual abuse by priests helps relieve some individuals of guilt and at the same time restores some dignity,'' he said.
David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), said he and other victims were ``encouraged'' by the meeting but he was pessimistic that anything could come from it.
``We are encouraged that the Vatican is taking greater interest in this horrific problem,'' he said in a statement. ``It is hard to be hopeful about the meeting's outcome, however, since these same men are the ones who largely got us into this terrible situation.''
The meeting, with clerical sexual misconduct as the sole agenda item, will take place next Tuesday and Wednesday between the pope, Vatican officials and the eight U.S. archbishops, including Bernard Cardinal Law.
In addition to Law, the meeting will include Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles, Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, William Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore, Adam Cardinal Maida of Detroit, Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. of Chicago, Edward Cardinal Egan of New York and Theodore Cardinal McCarrick of Washington, D.C.
The top two officials from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops - Bishop Wilton Gregory, the president, and Bishop William Skylstad, the vice president - also will attend, conference spokeswoman Sister Mary Ann Walsh said.
Maida said in a statement that convening the princes of the church will be beneficial to the reeling hierarchy as the list of allegations and victims grows at a mind-numbing pace.
``Bringing together this level of Church leadership in Rome on this most serious issue is the right move at the right time,'' said Maida. ``So much is happening so fast in various dioceses around the United States and elsewhere, that I welcome this opportunity to be able to reflect and react in this collegial setting.''
The crisis has grown exponentially since the beginning of the year as new revelations pour out. In Boston, Law has gone into seclusion after announcing he was remaining as archbishop despite a thickening body of evidence that he shuffled several admitted pedophile priests around and gave letters commending them for their service to the archdiocese.
Egan is also facing a storm of criticism for his handling of accused clerics while he was archbishop in Connecticut, including an allegation that he covered up for a priest who fathered a child by a 14-year-old girl. Mahony is also coming under fire for similar allegations of covering up accusations against sexually abusive priests while he was in Stockton, Calif.
Sources told the Herald last week that Law, the most senior prelate in the United States, offered his resignation to the pope but was rebuffed because his ouster could lead to a domino effect that would force out others.
Stephen J. Pope, chairman of the theology department at Boston College, said the meeting is historical in its short notice and single agenda. In 1989, American bishops were summoned for a meeting on teachings contrary to church views and bishops from Holland were called to the carpet in 1981 for a similar incident.
Pope speculated the meeting could be about ``personnel issues'' such as Law's resignation and what it means for the Catholic church in the United States. He said normally cardinal conclaves have months of lead time for preparation and reflection.
Dulles is one of five American cardinals who were not invited, but he said the focus of the meeting is for those cardinals who actively oversee archdioceses to hammer out a uniform response to the widening scandal.
``American bishops want a little more ability to deal with the question than canon law gives them at this time,'' Dulles told the Herald in a telephone interview yesterday.
Dulles, who was elevated to cardinal last year and shares many of the pope's conservative philosophies on church teachings, said the scandal is an American media creation that does not rise to the level of historical church crises such as the Gregorian revolution in the 12th century or the Protestant reformation of the 16th century.
``I don't think this is anything of comparable proportions,'' he said. ``I don't think there's any great crisis in the U.S . . . It's really practically no news. To the extent it's a crisis, it's created by the news media. I suppose every individual case is terrible but it is not something peculiar to the Catholic church.''
BC's Pope called Dulles' observation ``stunning'' and said it could reflect John Paul's feelings, given the two share similar views.
``That is profoundly out of touch with what ordinary Catholics are thinking,'' said Pope. ``There's a very deep emotional level of anger and depression. If that's the way the Vatican is thinking, there's a very big problem.''
He's not going to ratify it because it is theologically incorrect to say that a gay celibate cannot be validly ordained.
If you want to keep gays out of the priesthood, then don't ordain them. But you're going to have to wait for the current crop to die off or be laicized because nobody's going to retroactively invalidate a valid ordination.
Plus, if a gay priest is celibate, how would you know he's gay?
God bless.
You just needed to 'upper case' the "he" refering to Christ in the final sentence. (picky, picky, picky)... otherwise, excellent work!
What an odd thing to say. What if the celibate gay doesn't feel called to the brotherhood, but to the priesthood? Or is it just the thought of a celibate gay getting his hands on the Eucharist that bothers you? You think it bothers the Lord that much?
I think part of the reason these Cardinals and Bishops acted so scandalously and with impunity, is that they are just treated too deferentially by the laity.
I would write to Mr. (Fr.) Montalvo:
Dear Most Excellent Dude,
The jig is up. The decades of arrogance, hypocrisy and condescension of the high-level clerics toward the Word and toward the true Church and faithful, is about to come to an end. And none too soon. You guys have been read the riot act, over and over again, for the past THIRTY years, by the Wanderer folks and other orthodox Roman Catholics. You totally blew them off (sic).
My advice is for you to resign, and have about two-thirds of the hippie, heretical, cathedral-destroying, homo-enabling, American Cardinals and Bishops do the same. Likewise any of the multitude of priests who want to get out before the indictments start rolling off the assembly line. And, can you guys please pay for your own lawyers, like I do? I'd like my Sunday offering to go somewhere besides down a rathole.
Asking for Dude's Most Excellent Blessing,
Respectfully, caddie
I think that letter has the appropriate tone.
My bad.
Last week there was this "statement" from "the office of JP2" that the US Cardinals will be handling the crisis all on their own, "without the involvement of Rome".
Then the news today, which is a total about-face.
Methinks the kids were trying to fix the broken lamp themselves before Dad came home from work.
Man, they are looking bad, the high muckity-mucks.
They need to put a call in to St. Arthur of Anderson.
If Bishop Gregory thinks this is much ado about nothing and that it is a media hype,but certainly not a crises for the church,He should leave with the rest of the Cardinals.
They all seem to be operating in a parralel Universe.
These guys making the trip are directly responsibility for the Crisis our church is in.
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