If they're defrocked, the CHurch is not paying pensions.
If they're not defrocked, Canon Law requires it.
Fewer than 10% have been defrocked.
The rest are all living well either in monasteries or in resort areas, or in the old family home right in the diocese.
If they're defrocked, the CHurch is not paying pensions.
If they're not defrocked, Canon Law requires it.
Not exactly. There is a third option: Laicization. Several of the priests involved in the headline-grabbing scandals were eventually laicized. A laicized priest does NOT get a pension, which is unfortunate, because I know of decent men who were laicized, at their own request, because they did not feel they could conduct their priestly duties. (i.e., a former Viet Nam chaplain affected by his wartime experiences, a man who felt his celibacy was psychologically unhealthy for him, etc.) They were left gravely impoverished. I suppose you can't give them full pension, but I feel like giving them nothing leaves them like a divorced house wife who gets nothing in the settlement. And now, on top of it, they have a stigma because people wonder what they did to get laicized. Who hires ex-priests with a degree in only divinity? They're like HS grads entering the work force at 50 years old and not retirement!
Fr. Geoghan (sp?) of Boston, for instance, was laicized.
I know you know this sinkspur, but for others: when a priest "resigns" from his priestly duties, he is "laicized," i.e., made into a lay person. If done canonically, it does not mean he has broken his vows. Very vaguely analogous to having a marriage annulled. Sex perps often request laicization, just as scandalized professionals usually resign before they are fired. Having a sexual compulsion is a grounds for laicization, although laicization does not relive anyone of responsibility for their behavior.