Posted on 06/16/2011 5:41:56 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg
U.S. Catholic bishops voted Thursday to approve minor changes to their child protection charter amid several new scandals over bishops who have failed to follow it, after a key advisory committee warned that without more clear, direct responses, they risked undoing their progress on the issue.
On Tuesday, the bishops' conference was urged to "speak publicly and provide clear, accurate and honest information," said the report from the National Advisory Council, a demographically representative advisory board of 45 Catholics from across the U.S.
The warning was delivered by Bishop William Skurla, the board's liaison to the bishops, at their summer meeting in Bellevue.
The council said that, "without such information and renewed zeal to stay the course, the reputation of the charter and the image of the church are at risk."
Victim advocates were far more critical.
"Dramatic reforms are needed to better protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded," the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said.
The charter was drafted in 2002 at the height of public outrage over bishops who had failed to remove priests who had sexually abused minors.
It says no priest who has sexually abused a minor may remain in ministry, that a review board of lay experts must advise each bishop on response to accusations, that bishops must provide compassionate support to victims and provide extensive training on the detection and prevention of child sexual abuse.
It mandates outside audits of each diocese's implementation of those policies and established a National Review Board, whose members are primarily lay experts, to oversee all of this.
To give the charter teeth, the bishops arranged for the Vatican to give its rules the force of canon law.
But, it contains no penalty for bishops who failed to remove abusers or to follow the charter.
Under canon law, only the pope can discipline a bishop.
"We don't have any ability or authority to sanction anyone," said Bishop Blase Cupich, chairman of the Bishops' Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People.
In Philadelphia, Cardinal Justin Rigali is under heavy fire for mishandling accusations against dozens of priests, after a grand jury said 37 remained in ministry despite credible allegations.
A high-ranking archdiocesan official was indicted for inaction.
In Kansas City, Mo., Bishop Robert Finn failed to act on complaints from a parish school that a priest was displaying disturbing, pedophile-like behavior.
The priest was later arrested for possession of child pornography.
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., has refused to allow the audits required by the charter, with no apparent reaction from the Vatican. Notably, the bishops' committee that oversees the charter rejected more than two dozen proposed amendments from Bishop Bruskewitz, who argued that the charter isn't binding on any bishop.
The committee replied that the charter's rules were approved by the Vatican, which recently required all dioceses worldwide to adopt similar measures.
But this review of the charter was scheduled more than a year ago only to make sure it was in line with new Vatican documents, Cupich said.
There were no major proposed revisions because the charter works well in most of the nation's nearly 200 dioceses, he said.
"It is where the charter isn't followed correctly ... that we get into difficulties," he said.
The victim advocacy group BishopAccountability.org had proposed specific changes to the charter, including requiring the diocesan review boards to consider all accusations, not just those that bishops choose to forward to them, and requiring bishops to send all allegations, no matter how flimsy, to the civil authorities.
The advocacy group also wanted bishops to at least temporarily remove a priest from ministry as soon as an allegation is made, rather than wait until a preliminary investigation is completed.
At least a few bishops believe the charter is already too harsh on priest perpetrators.
Retired Archbishop Francis Hurley, emeritus of Anchorage, Alaska, said, "I have received questions from a number of people (asking) 'don't we believe in forgiveness?'"
Which ones? Or are you just saying that?
I've been to two so far (one for minor seminary, and currently at another for major seminary), and I've never seen any problems with homosexuality at either - and to say that they are 'gay-controlled' or 'screening out the straits(sic)' is completely absurd. Furthermore, the seminary where I currently attend has seminarians from all over the United States - and their experience seems to show that there were no such problems at their minor seminaries either.
The garbage has in large part been cleaned out, and the seminaries (at least the ones I am aware of) are working to form their seminarians into healthy well-integrated celibate priests.
“Perhaps people, priests especially, should spend more time making sure their actions are above reproach.”
Ask the daycare providers who were accused of fabricated charges during the wichhunts of the 90’s how suspect their actions were towards the children in their care.
I encourage you in your vocation and beg that you please fight against homosexual infiltration of the hierarchy and for restoration of Catholic Tradition.
An excellent book about the screening out heterosexuals from the seminaries is “Good Bye Good Men” by Michael Rose.
This is not the first time you have subliminally acknowledged the holiness and superiority of the Catholic priesthood by you are proclaiming Luke 12:48 relevant to them:
"But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few [stripes]. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Why do you never post priest abuse stories like this one:
Double horse hockey! How can you look yourself in the mirror or sleep well at night taking a position like that. Don't you realize that it is aiding and abetting the abuse of children by Protestant ministers by denying and covering for them?
>> Why do we need these rules? We have recently been assured by several FRoman Catholics that priests raping children is is all ancient history. <<
Well, the big, recent scandals in the story include:
A Philadelphia archbishop who followed the advice of the independent, lay review board, resulting in zero new abuse cases.
And a Kansas City bishop who failed to can a priest for “displaying disturbing, pedophile-like behavior,” and who was later arrested for looking at child pornography.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I think that Kansas City priest does certainly belong behind bars for a long time. And I think it’s very reasonable to presume hwe was headed down the path towards becoming an abuser before secular authorities stopped him. But precisely how many people were molested as a result of these lapses? Zero.
So how do the “reformed” churches deal with ministers having gay relationships with teenagers? Declare that rather than exercising perversions, they are “mutually exploring their sexuality together.”
>> I encourage you in your vocation and beg that you please fight against homosexual infiltration of the hierarchy and for restoration of Catholic Tradition. <<
Absolutely. The Rochester Bishop is being disobedient. However, he does have his own authority, and he is not being heretical, since the seminarians he is receiving are pledging to be celibate. The problem is, however, that homosexual tendencies, while not being sinful in their own right, are a warning sign of sexual dysfunctional, which can metasticize under the rigors of celibacy and the exercise of authority: not all of those with homosexual inclinations are abusers, but a striking number of the abusers were homosexuals.
***Even still, if a Protestant minister were to have been accused of sexually abusing a child, the church would not hide nor protect him...***
If a Protestant, or any other church, hid or protected a child abuser, how would you know about it? Your argument rebounds upon itself.
Not one case mentioned in this thread refers to recent abuse.
The point is there are mechanisms in place in Protestant churches where if a pastor is accused of an impropriety, he is asked to step down from the pulpit until the matter is settled. (These are usually indiscretions with adult women in the congregation, thus no police would be involved.)
If the indiscretion involved a child or anyone under-age, the accusation against the pastor would immediately be handed over to the police, usually by one or more elders of the church.
This is SOP for most Protestant churches. Completely different in Roman Catholic churches where the priest is protected, hidden and the victim is threatened with excommunication if he tells ANYONE of his accusation outside of someone from the church, per Crimen Sollicitationis.
If Roman Catholics with children don’t know these facts, they sure should brush up on them. Their children are at risk.
Prove it. Provide documented SOPs and objective evidence of compliance. Euphoric vagaries are as useful as teats on a bull for these discussions when you have made specific accusations about Catholics and the Catholic Church.
Your cult says that Methodists and Pentecostalist and in fact all Arminiams like Baptists etc. are damnable heretics going to hell
This of course is besides it's blatant anti-semitism and hatred of every Christian group -- down to calling Rev. Billy Graham a pawn of satan
Secondly, your cult of 10,000 adults and paedophiles covers up the number of cases it generates pretty well, just like every such tiny cult does.
Just because your cult molests its young like the the Branch Davidians and doesn't want the world to know, that's why the entire diatribe against others.
| The Orthodox Presbyterian Church was founded in 1936 by about 135 people who were offended by the lack of discipline in and doctrinal errors of the Presbyterian Church in the USA. . But early in its history the OPC fell under the influence of an agnostic view of propositional revelation emanating from Westminster Seminary -- a view that said that there is no identity of content between the \"Christian system\" of theology, meaning Reformed confessions of faith, and the \"divine system\" of theology, known only to God. This agnosticism has now brought the OPC to the point of falling. Like its predecessor, the PCUSA, the OPC has failed to discipline teachers who teach contrary to Scriptures and the Confession of Faith, and it has endorsed un-Biblical teaching about Scripture and the Gospel. |
| Despite the painstaking efforts of many fine Christians within the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), the leaders of the OPC maintain a suicidal course. Despite the departure of congregations and individuals from the OPC, due to the leaders' collective inability to resolve the current justification controversy Biblically, the OPC leaders continue to advance doctrines that contradict Scripture. The OPC is, in the words of its late historian Charles Dennison, "obviously inept, bumbling, [and] confused."1 That confusion now appears to be fatal. At this point in its history, the confessional affirmations of the OPC have no more credibility than the confessional affirmations of the PCUSA from 1936 to 1967. One of the commissioners to the 2004 OPC General Assembly made this very point: "There was a time when, if the OPC said it, it was accepted. The 2003 deliverance that accompanied the decision to acquit [John Kinnaird] destroyed forever that our words will not be questioned. The PCUSA always said that the [Westminster] Confession was their confession (even as they were denying it)." |
It's appalling how your cult, the OPC hates Billy Graham, calls Pentecostals and Methodists as damned heretics, hates Jews, Lutherans, Baptists etc. and still pretends to be Protestant
Your post should be honest and state that your cult is a rabidly anti-Semitic group that has lately been trying to promote it's anti-Israeli message on FR with posts like:
What is disgusting is that this group (the OPC) pretends to be Christian while spouting it's hatred for Jews and Christians alike
It's appalling how your cult, the OPC hates Billy Graham, calls Pentecostals and Methodists as damned heretics, hates Jews, Lutherans, Baptists etc. and still pretends to be Protestant
Your post should be honest and state that your cult is a rabidly anti-Semitic group that has lately been trying to promote it's anti-Israeli message on FR with posts like:
What is disgusting is that this group (the OPC) pretends to be Christian while spouting it's hatred for Jews and Christians alike
Part of the reason for the different reactions is that Evangelical Protestant churches tend to be independent and congregational. There's no other diocese to be shuffled to and no authority to do the shuffling. I imagine hierarchic Protestant churches (such as in the Anglican communion) would have statistics closer to those of the Catholic Church.
Then you better throw away all your higher critical Catholic "bibles" (the ones with notes by Fr. Raymond Brown explaining that none of this stuff actually happened, and which all have imprimaturs from the bishops).
When not online, I use my trusty Douay Rheims English translation of the Latin Vulgate.
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