[Dr. Eckleburg]

They just don't seem to get it, do they?

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...

What a surprise.../not.

[mas cerveza por favor]

These clowns are still in cover-up mode. The bishops and complicit media are still denying that it is a homosexual problem.

[SuziQ]

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.

If they want to remove a priest, with just an allegation, they should do it quietly, working on the most recent allegation, then start checking in other parishes in which he's served. He should not be publicly accused without serious evidence.

Once an allegation is made public, there is no where the priest can go to get his reputation back when the allegation proves false, or there was nothing serious about what might have happened. In many Dioceses, Bishops have turned over their Pastoral responsibility to Commissions who treat priests as guilty before any real evidence is even produced. This is the flip side of the Bishops turning blind eyes to actual abuse in the past. Both are wrong. The Bishop should never abrogate his responsibility to his priests, and should treat each situation personally, with judgement, and discretion, until such time as clear evidence of abuse is produced.