What has the sex abuse scandal cost the Catholic Church? Not merely ruined lives. Not merely $2.7 billion dollars. Jo Renee Formicola argues that a price has been paid that we haven't even been noticing.
What she points out is this: because of the perfidious negligence of the bishops, civil law now trumps canon law. The two millennial tradition of the separate and conflicting realms in the West - civil / temporal vs. spiritual - has now collapsed. Bishop Finn in Kansas City willingly gave oversight of his diocese to the county government - just to avoid a misdemeanor rap. But, in effect, every bishop has done the same. Protecting pedophiles has led to this. From the article ...
“The legal system has stepped forward to do what the church itself would not do. It has challenged the church and demanded information on priests’ medical and psychiatric records,” Formicola said. “Things that were held ecclesiastically as being outside the law and protected by privilege, are no longer protected by privilege.
“That makes a huge difference,” she explained, “because it means the Catholic church is now treated like any other corporate entity. If you’re going to investigate a corporation, they have to turn information over to you. Now certain things can be subpoenaed and there’s no question that it can be done and it will be done.”
10 comments:
I strongly disagree, there remains far too many cases where law enforcement and our judicial system still acquiesce to pressures from large powerful organizations like the Catholic Church, I have seen many such examples. Yes some municipalities have put their foot down and do all possible to send a message this will not be tolerated...look at Philadelphia for example. Some others have demanded and undersized Grand Jury investigations, but until our federal government steps in and conducts a full scale investigation like several countries have already done or are in the process of doing. This powerful institution continues to get away with concealing, hiding and protecting men they know molested children, they know are a continuing threat to our society. Miss Formicola is from NJ, she should know this better than most, Archbishop Myers and others here in this state have continued to put children in harms way and continue to REFUSE to tell the faithful about offenses committed against the young by clergy. Why have we not heard more from this and others states leading law enforcement officials? Thats when you can say the tide has turned and civil society no longer gives this powerful institution a "get out of jail free" card. We are certainly not there yet!
Got any advice for a Catholic who doesn't know where to stand with the clergy?
Should one's Church life merely consist of the sacramental life, and taking clergy's statements with a pinch of salt?
- Michael R.
Yes, Michael R., pray with me:
Oremus et pro perfidis episcopis: ut Deus et Dominus noster auferat velamen de cordibus eorum; ut et ipsi agnoscant Iesum Christum Dominum nostrum. [Quod non responderit 'Amen', nec dicitur Oremus, vel Flectamus genua, et levate, sed statim dicitur] Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui nobis non excludit etiam a tua misericordia perfidorum episcopis, preces nostras, quas in sua caecitate; ut, agnita veritatis tuae luce, quae Christus est, ut a suis tenebris eruantur. Per eúmdem Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Michael R., use Google translator on that - and see my response to your question here ... http://thwordinc.blogspot.com/2015/01/how-to-find-communion-in-church-that.html
As a Catholic and US Citizen who totally disagrees with what has happened regarding the scandals in the USA,it seems a tragic reality that any files where given to the Government.
Our Bishops should have gone to jail for their priests instead of turning over confidential files. The Bishops involved where cowards from the start. Yes, they never should have allowed any pedifile priests to be moved around and Some of these Bishops had wise counsel to take any priests with that sinful reality to be put out in a monastery on an island where he would do penance for the rest of his life.
The priesthood is sacred even for the Judas priest who will go before God to be judged. This never would have gotten to this point if the Bishops had gone to jail instead of handing over priest's files. Lawyers are making money off of the ugly reality of not a pedifile priest but the pornographic USA and it's ugly culture of death. It's so called sexual revolution and materialistic greed will one day be seen for what it really is a land of abuse for all. Check out how many ugly american males are pedfiles who are not priest but judges, teachers, lawyers, policemen and the guy next door., There are some women out there like this too. Wake up America before you have God's justice in your lap. Abortion the greatest abuse going.
St. Cecilia
I've read this several times over the last two days and I've yet to discover the "down side" of it. Secular, bureaucratic incompetence is surely better than ordained, willful evil; surely better than willingly subjecting children to evil to protect one's friends and one's image.
In "The Man In The High Castle," Phillip K. Dick wrote of the Nazi psychosis: that will to admire, respect and thus elevate the abstract principle to the level of an incarnate good, while simultaneously regarding the incarnate good of human beings as worth nothing at all. God damn such an evil outlook. God damn it whether found in Nazis or Bishops. God damn it all.
Frank LaFerriere:
You Roman Catholics sicken and disgust me. You stand up for your pedophiles and pedophile pimp leaders of your church of Pedophiles, over your very own children, who were raped, beaten, tortured and destroyed by these child rapist priests.
I as a survivor of this evil, declare now before all of you. You may all think you can hide behind this religious crap to protect yourselves from the evil that you have done to all of us.
Your leaders, those Popes, Cardinals, Bishops and Archbishops who put these disgusting child rapists protection, and the protection of the church before us, will in fact reap what you have sown.
You are all guilty of violating OUR RIGHTS to be free from this evil, from this horror, by standing up for these scum of your churches, instead of standing up for us who were raped by them.
You all condemn us, as anti-Catholic bigots, as haters? Why should we EVER forgive any of you for what you have done to us and what you continue to do to us?
How dare you even ask us for forgiveness in the first freaking place, when YOU HAVE NOT REPENTED OF YOUR CRIMES AGAINST US.
Get this through your thick skulls. These are NOT sins that can be forgiven, these are CRIMES that must be paid for. You do NOT forgive a crime or a sin, until the person and persons committing those CRIMES are brought before a CIVIL court of law and dealt with.
How DARE you call yourselves holy? How DARE you call yourselves the one church of Jesus Christ?
Jesus Christ himself condemns ALL of you.
Matthew 23 will be YOUR judgement, each and every one of you and you will in fact be judged for your crimes against humanity and the children of the world.
Read your damnable Catechism.
2356: Rape is the forcible violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents (incest) or those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them.
I HEREBY CONDEMN ALL OF YOU, BY YOUR OWN WORDS. I HEREBY CONDEMN ALL OF YOU, FOR THE PERVERTED PHARISEES AND TWISTED FOLLOWERS THAT YOU ARE.
Jesus Christ stated that it would be better for YOU to tie a huge boulder around YOUR NECK and throw yourself into the deepest of lakes, than to harm a single hair on the head of a child.
Well ALL of you have done a lot more than harmed a hair on the head of a child...so I would suggest you ALL go tie some huge boulders around your necks and start tossing yourselves into some pretty deep lakes....or truly repent and stand for us victims instead of your disgusting Pedophile Pimps and Priests...or you will face a million times more condemnation when YOU get before the one YOU proclaim to follow.
How's this? One of your disgusting priests stated that he would like to take us into a room and beat us with a baseball bat to show us what pain and suffering is.
How about we the victims do the same to all of you who stand up for this church of Pedophiles so we can show YOU what pain and suffering is?
Turn them all over every filthy pig, every liar and protector too!! You all deserve no less than the public punishment afforded these helpless children!! Where are the outraged parents? Where is the media that should be following these animals with cameras around so the world should see their faces and know what they are!! And as for the rest of the RCC burn in hell for your silence!!!
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