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| Edward Pentin, Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Register |
It pains me to point out that National Catholic Register, once a fairly solid and trustworthy publication, has become the only mainstream journal (to my knowledge) to buy into the trad hysteria over the removal of one of the worst bishops in the world.
Edward Pentin has been Pent-up too long, it seems. Here he buys into the rallying cry of the extreme right wing in the Church that the bishop of the City of the East in Paraguay was unjustly removed.
Here's my comment, which I assume will be published at the site ...
Livieres handling of Urrutigoity was shameful. He let a known sexual abuser in his diocese, despite having been warned against doing so by Urrutigoity's former bishop. He made him a monsignor and his vicar general, giving him unfettered access to boys, even after Urrutigoity admitted to sleeping with boys as a form of "spiritual direction".It is shameful that NCR is buying into the reactionary hysteria over the removal of an obviously harmful bishop. I'm sure left / right politics entered into this, and the Vatican said Livieres was not removed solely because of Urrutigoity - but a bishop who would enable an abuser like that and make him his vicar general is a bishop who should be not only removed, but tarred and feathered on his way out of town.In addition, Urrutigoity has been involved in a number of shady financial dealings, has thereby (allegedly) victimized many donors financially, and is clearly (according to a number of people, including many of his bishops and superiors) a dangerous man in many ways.Ask yourself how competent Livieres must be if he put such trust in such a man. And then, if you still want to believe that traddies are being persecuted because of Livieres and Urrutiogity, of all people, you need a serious reality check. I'm a traditionalist myself and it may indeed be that Pope Francis is biased against us, but the removal of Livieres is not an example of that.And when Finn gets the boot from KC, you can claim the same thing. If anything, Finn cares even less about protecting children than Livieres. Read the independent report on Finn's crimes that he himself commissioned.NCR, take a deep breath and step back from "The Eponymous Flower" and folks at the "Remnant". This one-sided reporting does not bode well for what has been a solid and trustworthy Catholic publication. The way to keep sane amidst the divisiveness in the Church is to look at the facts. In this case, the facts do not support the claim that Livieres was unjustly removed.
One wonders. Is Edward Pentin a member of Opus Dei (both Livieres and Finn are)? Is he parroting talking points or a press release he received from Opus Dei, as Donohue from the Catholic Defense League did when the Finn scandal broke? Either way, NCR could use a real journalist in Rome and not someone who, rather than reporting, seems to be repeating things he's heard via a very biased and wacky template.
What a mess we have in the Church.
Comments
It is highly unlikely that Opus Dei issued any press release on this. In fact, they're flushing Livieres down the memory hole. Even his Wikipedia page is gone now. Opus Dei is good at this.
What it looks like to me is, Pentin mined Lombardi's statement for quotes, mined Livieres' letter for quotes, and filled in the blanks with his own guesswork and biases, and called it a story. It's shameful propaganda, but I doubt it was orchestrated by Opus Dei. It doesn't read that way.
Finn and Livieres should go. These two also happen to be strong conservatives. Their failures gives Francis the excuse he needs to continue his purge of conservatives and traditionalists.
Yet you don't see Francis going after liberals like Cardinal Danneels over his sexual abuse failures. Then you have the hypocrisy of Francis defending the sexual predator Monsignor Ricca when Francis sacked Livieres for sheltering Urrutigoity.
If Pope Francis is serious about holding bishops accountable, it has to be on both sides and include everyone whether they be conservative or liberal. It should not be based on ideology. However, with Francis you are dealing with the ultimate politician.