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Monsignor Harry J. Byrne, JCD * * * Comment/contact:larchstar@aol.com

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Location: 3103 Arlington Avenue,, Bronx, NY 10463, United States

July 16, 2010

BULLET-PROOF VESTS FOR BISHOPS!

Yesterday, July 15, the Vatican did not help its already damaged reputation, when it declared a new set of rules dealing with both abusing priests and ordained women in the same document, suggesting, by juxtaposition, that both groups are involved with equally "grave" offenses. This Vatican document with its bizarre twinning of ordained pedofiles and ordained women shows a stupidity and absence of sound moral judgment probably unequalled in church history. To equate as "grave crimes" pedofilia and ordination of women has caused a great negative outcry from fair-minded men and women and an abundance of sharp criticism in op-eds, editorials, and letters to the editor. The ordination of women is a mere blip on the church radar screen. There are no victims; priests' abuse of children appears as a raging hurricane, leaving untold thousands of children psychologically and spiritually wounded. Have the curia people, who publicly juxtaposed these issues, lost all sense of moral judgment and personal embarrasment as they appear in public as though everything is just fine? It is not the emperor who has lost his clothes!

The new document deals with statutes of limitation, administrative processes, and canonical trials relative to priests; it says nothing whatever about those bishops, who quietly reassigned miscreants and thereby exponentially multiplied the number of victims. In the US, not one cover-up bishop has ever been arraigned before church authorities for his part in the scandal. On the contrary, Cardinal Bernard Law, poster boy for cover-ups and driven from Boston by his priests and people, was welcomed to Rome by JPII and given rectorship of a prominent church, significant curial posts, and a six figure income. The armor of clericalism shielded him from any accountability just as this present Vatican document continues to shield all bishops from any accountability. Our bishops' own National Review Board has tellingly declared, "The exercise of authority without accountability is not servant-leadership; it is tyranny".

This document also provides, that regarding the delicts mentioned, cardinals and bishops are to be judged, by mandate of the Pope, by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. But no item of a bishop's possible delinquent behavior, it's punishment, or any process for judgment is indicated, despite the long history of bishops secretly reassigning pedophiles "to avoid scandal". They have no warrant for the immunity they incredibly possess from harsh judgment and punishment. When reports of two government commissions revealed the extent of abuse by priests in Ireland, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, apparently aware of the immunity of his fellow bishops, announced a policy of "fraternal correction". He called on five bishops to resign because of their complicity in reassignments of pedofiles. Four did resign. Later Martin emerged from a meeting in Rome with B16 in what the press characterized as a "chastened mood". Did the pope tell him that calls for resignations could only come from the pope? And in the present document, judgment of bishops is put in the hands of the CDF. A further example of the pope maintaining the immunity of bishops? And his own tight control?

This document shows the clericalism that is at the heart of our church's problem. The official church doesn't see women as equal to men! Remember JPII when he refused to acknowledge the existence of Sister Theresa Kane when she addressed him. And now putting ordained women in the same bag as ordained pedofiles! And bishops in their bullet-proof vests from which the bullets of genuine criticism and accusations bounce away, unnoticed! This is the clericalism that must be driven away by the forces of truth and justice! In the meantime, we Catholics are embarrassed at the ineptitude and ignorance of the real world displayed by our supposed leaders.

18 Comments:

Blogger Watson said...

Thank you for having the courage to speak out. It can't be an easy time for priests of integrity but your voices are needed.

July 19, 2010 at 11:48 AM  
Blogger djm said...

Praise the Lord. Perhaps change is
possible if the priests of the Church will speak up. We need you Fathers, else we will have to seek
God without the Church which is divesting itself of its members.

July 19, 2010 at 4:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

July 20, 2010 at 2:40 AM  
Blogger Iggy said...

St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us.

Thank you. The one real hope the church has is for priests, bishops and other religious to speak out against the sins of the institution. Priests like you are needed now, as perhaps never before.

July 20, 2010 at 9:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are a wonderful voice for us laity ! The lack of awareness from the vatican is now longer unexpected . Changes are coming with women who have been ordained and have integrity .
All of our voices are needed as well as nor supporting this church that refuses to recognise females .

July 20, 2010 at 12:15 PM  
Blogger Kathleen said...

Thank you for your forthrightness and integrity. May your kind increase and multiply.

July 20, 2010 at 4:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for being very courageous.

It is my personal belief that anyone who contributes another cent to a vile perversion of Christianity has blood on their hands. With remarkable exceptions, we’re dealing with a pompous hierarchy that feeds on money, subordinates women and has repeatedly turned its back while children were subjected to unspeakable cruelty.

Cut the flow of cash and homage to hypocritical, self-promoting, misogynistic managers and a glorious new church will blossom from the ineffable goodness of Catholic laity...and from an enormous number of honorable priests, nuns and former Catholics who abhor child abuse and support the ordination of Roman Catholic women.

July 20, 2010 at 8:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I also wonder why all the attention has been paid to them equating child molestation to women's ordination, and NONE to them equating it with schism. Schism is just being a Protestant. Or Orthodox. Does the Vatican really believe that being a Presbyterian is as "grave" as molesting a kid?

July 21, 2010 at 2:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Stupidity, yes. Moral lapse, in part. I can in my mind see some minor editorial person in the Curia saying, "Huh?" because everyone knows that legislation classing offenses can cover a wide front ... if we pass a law in the legislature that classifies a fourth DUI/DWI as a felony, and tweaks the definition of statutory rape, no one is going to think we are equating the two offenses.
Stupid still, though, in not anticipating the emotionality of response. The moral lapse is in continuing to treat bishops as above offending.

July 22, 2010 at 11:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the media has exaggerated the issue by categorizing ordained pedophiles with ordained women. Or maybe Vatican officials are regretting what was previoulsly stated by Vatican officials.

A Vatican official, Charles Sciciuna of the church doctrinal department, however, told Reuters agency that the two issues “are in the same document, but this does not put them on the same level or assign them the same gravity … this is not putting everything into one basket.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/0716/Vatican-stirs-storm-on-women-priests-in-clarifying-law-on-clergy-abuse

July 23, 2010 at 6:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Catholic News Service reports, Roman Catholic Women Priests, an organization that is not recognized by the church but claims that more than 100 women worldwide have been ordained priests or bishops in the past eight years, responded to what it called "the Vatican's equating women's ordination with pedophilia by priests" with a demand that the Vatican "affirm women's full equality in the church, including priestly ministry."

"We demand an end to misogyny in the Catholic Church," the group said in a statement. "We demand that the Vatican adopt reforms to transform church laws and practices to reflect transparency, accountability, justice and equality for all."
http://ww.examiner.com/x-39512-Jackson-Catholic-Examiner~y2010m7d23-No-women-are-ordained-as-priests-or-bishops-in-the-Catholic-Church
There are additional links to articles at the bottom of the above link's page.

July 23, 2010 at 7:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

AS with this--or any other Church sandal--follow the money. The money trail leads to Legionaries of Christ founder Maciel and his minions,and stretches to JPII's doorstep. Benedict is remiss in leaving some of JPII's well-paid cronies in positions of authority, where they promote their lackeys, giving us another generation of dysfunctional bureaucrats in the Vatican who think ordaining women is like ordaining a dog or a lamppost (I heard this in seminary) and equally illegal to all manner of sexual abuse issues. Follow the money trail, and you will understand how all this has happened.

July 25, 2010 at 10:36 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Well said, Msrg!

July 27, 2010 at 11:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

July 28, 2010 at 6:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are you deluded in your old age?
It is impossible for women to be ordained!
Moral perversity by priests and bishops does not justify heresy and the simulation of a sacrament by the laity.
Shouldn't you as a priest be explaining the difference between sexual abuse as a sin and sins against religion? Instead, you cause more division.
Remember you took a OATH against Modernism and to uphold the Magisterial teaching!
Stop hiding behind the collar. Sadly, you are preaching yourself, not Catholic teaching.

October 13, 2010 at 8:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Deluded? Rather a clarity of thought that gives us hope! It is a shame that some are so deluded by the vatican bureaucracy that they equate following Jesus and fidelity to the basis tenants of the faith to heresy. The commission the Paul VI commissioned to see if their were any theological reasons not to permit womwn's ordination couldn't find any!
Unfortunately our present "leaders" are more adverse to exxploring the question of womens ordination than to saving the legion of cchrist founded by the infamous rapist and serial polygamist marcial maciel.
Pope John XXIII pray for us!

December 19, 2010 at 10:25 PM  
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