Clerical collateral damage

The Washington Times ^ | March 4, 2008 | Pete Vere

[veritas2002]

Two things..First you are accurate in my estimation and experience that priests often preyed on boys with passive, alcoholic or absent fathers. Part of my point is, where has the collective outrage of men in the Church been about what was being done to the sons, the future husbands of their daughters? Men have to look after the integrity of maleness. If they don't.... well.
Second, I was at a meeting with our bishop and the highest ranking clergy of my diocese to discuss what was going to be done with one of our wayward priests. The conversation centered on what the psychological issues were and what therapist he would be referred to. I piped up (I was there as the psychological consultant) and said, “Pardon my saying so, but why are we presuming that this is a psychological disorder rather than a moral one. And what this man needs is acknowledgment of his sin, repentance and penance.” Thay all looked at me as if I were crazy. I began thinking maybe I was.

[livius]

You’re not! (Crazy, that is!) These bishops are so far removed from the reality of the Faith that they wouldn’t know it if it bit them.

Behind every bad priest is a bad bishop.

[livius]

I think it’s probably not enough for a bishop simply to be a decent person himself. He’s got to be a lion for the Faith, and get out there and fight to restore it to his diocese. This will include finding himself on the opposite of issues from a lot of the older heterdox or even just go-along-to-get-along bishops.

Our bishop wasn’t bad, left to his own devices (although he hates the Latin Mass and has simply refused to implement the MP, the only thing on which he has stood firm!), but he wasn’t up to retaking the diocese for orthodoxy. He makes little stabs at doing it when some priest tries to do something really goofy (when the wymyn’s ordination parish heats up, for example), but he has obviously given up on a more general level and is just waiting for his retirement in two years. He is even handling a moral issue with one of the priests here exactly the way the losers in Boston handled it, so we can see how much the bishops learned from that experience!

It was well known that our bishop didn’t want to be a bishop and hates being one. While Rome should not be seeking clerical climbers, it should be looking for orthodox men with leadership abilities - and courage!

[maryz]

the sudden tendency to rely on a psychological approach to things

Closely related to -- or part of -- the modern cult of "niceness." After all, Jesus preached a gospel of "luv", didn't He? (Do I need the /s here?) Anyway, that's lots easier for most people than telling home truths (which approach can be abused too, to be fair -- there are people who are downright cruel, and pointlessly, and pride themselves on their "honesty").

Still no way around it -- what we need is genuine goodness -- not niceness.