Would someone care to provide a list of American bishops who (a) have not resigned; (b) have not yet retired; and (c) are themselves (not their predecessors) credibly accused of coverups ?
The most egregious case I can think of Mahoney, who’s both retired (finally) and protected by the liberal media. You can guarantee that a bishop who was conservative — a Chaput or Bruskewitz — who could be painted as guilty of covering up child abuse would have been pilloried in the press by now. The press covers up for Mahoney and those like him because he’s a liberal like they are.
Try going to bishop-accountability on google.
National Catholic Reporter (i.e. Fishwrap) editor-at-large Tom Roberts had a blistering commentary in yesterday's edition that (despite it being the Fishwrap) is IMO worth reading:
In contrast, in the ongoing abuse crisis in the church, only one bishop who oversaw a cover-up, Cardinal Bernard Law, was removed from a position after public outrage and the outrage of his priests in Boston reached such a pitch that the Vatican had to do something. That something was to transfer him to a cushy position in Rome, where it was easier for him to get to the meetings of the six influential Vatican congregations -- offices in the Vatican bureaucracy -- on which he was allowed to retain membership.Another example not listed above is Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who resigned his office voluntarely at age 75, despite having a gay lover, yet received all retirement benefits due a former bishop. From a sacerdotal point of view, Weakland walked away with a clear conscience. And Weakland's successor, Archbishop Jerome Listecki, had the chutzpah to blame the priests, not Weakland and not the Archdiocese, for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee having to file Chapter 11 Bankruptcy because of all the abuse that went on under Weakland.He recently hosted a lavish party in Rome to celebrate his 80th birthday. It was attended by some of the top figures within the Vatican bureaucracy.
Cardinal Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua, who oversaw the cover-up of hideous crimes against children committed by numerous Philadelphia priests, was able to slip quietly into retirement on the grounds of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, a suburb of Philadelphia. The Vatican never uttered a word of reprimand for the institutional harm to children that he helped to hide during his tenure and that is detailed in a Philadelphia grand jury report.
His successor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, and some in his administration repeatedly violated the bishops' own norms for handling sex abuse and repeatedly misrepresented to the public the nature and extent of the problem. A second grand jury report resulted in the indictment of Msgr. William Lynn, former vicar for clergy, for failing to remove abusive priests. He was at the time the highest-ranking Catholic clergyman charged in the scandal.
Rigali recently slipped quietly into retirement. Again, no word of rebuke from the Vatican.
Bishop Robert Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., became the highest-ranking clergyman charged in the abuse scandal when he and the diocese were indicted for failing to report child abuse. But Finn is staying in place, determined to run the diocese, and apparently no one can tell him, much less force him, to step aside for the good of the church while dealing with his legal entanglements.
No word of rebuke has issued -- not from fellow bishops nor from Rome -- of Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb., who has flatly refused to comply with the minimal controls put in place by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops during its spring meeting in Dallas in 2002.
And former Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has been allowed to quietly slip off the national stage while leaving behind a mountain of documentation that would blow the lid of the archdiocese if released, say prosecutors, victims' lawyers and others involved in assessing cases. No one knows quite how much has been spent keeping the documents -- which were supposed to be released as part of an earlier settlement agreement -- under wraps.