Here’s a penalty levelled with no pretense of due process. “A credible allegation” justifies verdict and sentence?
It’s not just a Catholic phenomenon that clergy get weird stuff said about them. I forget what it was but when I was in a mission church somebody started up some rumor. There was some factionalism in the congregation about changing the form of worship, as the bishop (to whom all missions answer) required. Nancy and I took a little heat, but nearly everyone in the parish knew the rumor-monger was a slightly addled troublemaker.
How hard would it be to cobble up a “credible allegation” about something that happened to a man now dead? How hard would be it to establish one’s innocence for something that might or might not have happened some years ago?
In our current parish, the friars doors all have windows in them so that the friar can be seen from the corridor. Towards the end of my time in the Episcopal Church I would not close the door if I was alone with anyone. It’s scary out there!
Understood. At the two hospitals where I was a nurse, anyone at the nurse’s station could open a speaker/listener channel to any patient’s room on the unit. In addition to allowing easier quicker communication with the patient, nurses were protected from the risk of accusations by unbalanced patients. This was especially important for male nurses, but the women appreciated it too.
EXCELLENT POINTS.
LUBBRO
“Towards the end of my time in the Episcopal Church I would not close the door if I was alone with anyone”
Jesus did advise being cautious as a serpent. Even while being innocent as a dove.
The times really are wicked.