Posted on 10/25/2002 9:39:49 AM PDT by jimkress
Edited on 05/07/2004 7:09:05 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
VATICAN CITY -- As they crafted a sex abuse policy for disciplining errant priests, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops may have been hampered by an unseen handicap: They were too American.
The Vatican refused last week to put its stamp of approval on the U.S. plan. It declared the provisions confusing, ambiguous, "difficult to reconcile" with church law and left open procedural questions that needed to be resolved.
(Excerpt) Read more at detnews.com ...
The issue is that the catholic church asserts that priests are not subject to the laws that you and I must obey.
If a school teacher is accused of sexually harassing a child in their classroom, they are suspended with pay until a police investigation is completed. Then, if there is sufficient evidence that a crime was committed, the teacher is turned over for arrest and charged with the crime. They are then jailed or released on bail. After that they are tried, and if convicted, sent to prison. If they are not convicted, then they return to their job.
That is the normal course of due process which should be applied to all people in America. Unfortunately, the catholic church wants to claim that their priests are exempt from this entire process. The catholic church claims that it, and only it, is permitted to decide whether or not the priest is guilty and, if he is found guilty, the catholic church is the only entity allowed to specify and imposed the punishment it deems proper.
Given the historical propensity for the catholic church to transfer these perverts to yet another town where they can rape more children, I am not convinced that the catholic church should be allowed to supercede the laws you and I have to obey and the due process procedures we must follow.
Complete Nonsense! You are confusing canon law which governs the Church with the secular law's of society, in this case, the laws enacted by the individual States in America. Anybody, including Priests, accused of illegal behaviour can be brought to court and if found guilty, sent to prison or other penalty enacted by the State. There is absolutely nothing preventing this from happening - either now or in the past.
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