I would love to see Rome start to remove some of these bishops. I know Rome is basically waiting for them to “age out,” hoping that the problem will then go away on its own. But heterodox or immoral bishops give scandal and create enormous problems that will endure long after they’ve been allowed to ride off into the sunset, so leaving them there without even a clear censure from Rome is a foolish policy in the long term.
In addition, it seems that retired bishops no longer have to leave their dioceses. They hang around and still control their networks of loyalists in the diocesan offices and their cronies in the parishes. Our current bishop, while being essentially a weak man and no leader (except in his opposition to the Latin Mass!), probably wouldn’t be as bad as he is if it weren’t for the fact that the old bishop is still here, still circulates around, and still has a lot of influence. I think that there should be some agreement that when these guys retire, they have to move out of the diocese and leave it to the new bishop free and clear.
I'd love to see a firmer hand, too. But -- maybe it's cowardly -- I keep envisioning the media circus that would result. Clearly, a defiant bishop would be lionized by the media. Like I said before, temporal power of the papacy had its points, but the pope can no longer put recalcitrant bishops in dungeons on bread and water!
On another matter regarding homosexual priests, while I hold the bishops largely responsible, I also charge that Catholic fathers are also to blame. The succumbed to the post Vatican II feminization of the Church, were emasculated and when their sons were being sexually abused by the priests, where were they? I know that much of it could not have been prevented by them, but where was the outrage on the part of fathers collectively when it came to light that their sons were being abused. Let me say this, if my son was abused by a priest or any other man I would do what a real man would do. I'd beat the living shit out of the guy who did it to them. Suing the dioceses is a weak response by fathers. How lame. I'd bet if one of those priests were taken out and leveled when the first hint of this abuse began to come to light, some of the later homosexual priests might have thought twice about the advisability of touching the boys. My challenge to Catholic men is: “Where are you now in terms of leadership roles in your Church. I look around my Catholic Church and still the women are in charge and they are the only one's present for the most part.
**I would love to see Rome start to remove some of these bishops.**
Hasn’t this happened with a few. I think of the wreckovation bishop (somewhere in MN?) and Pilla.
I have faith in Pope Benedict. Things are starting to happen.