A Call for the Catholic Clergy to Cede Authority


While it is popular for Catholic lay people to say, "Yes we have had some bad priests, but there are bad people in every profession," this leaves out the most cunning and devious behavior at the highest levels of the denomination. First, there was the shuffling around of criminals from one parish and hiding them in another. Second, investigation of the sex abuse scandal came from outside pressure which was resisted by the clergy in charge.

When information first came to Bishops about abuse they had two choices. They could have hid the information from their own members and moved the bad priests around. Or, they could have instituted a denomination-wide investigation and acknowledged to the public this was taking place.

If Bishops had chosen the latter we could have concluded that almost across the board they held the interests of the public at heart. But, large numbers of them chose the former.

With years of new allegations to come, the Catholic church would be wise to take preemptive steps right now to blunt the damage that lies ahead. It could do that by acknowledging the church was wrong in the past to give so much authority to the clergy.

The current Catholic church could do what Protestant churches have been doing from day one. It should dissolve itself then start anew as the "Reformed Catholic Church." The term "reformed" is a euphemism for the come common word, "improved." This Reformed church would give authority to lay people and its universities to write its theological doctrine and the limit the authority of the Pope and clergy.

Once this was done, the crimes about to be revealed could be passed off as a problem now solved.


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