Newly Appointed Catholic Official Says he Could Have Done Better in Priest Abuse Case


An Archbishop in Argentina, a long-term friend of the Pope, has been appointed to a high position in the Catholic bureaucracy He refused for a long tine to believe reports of abuse by a priest who worked for him. The Pope weighed in early with support of the wayward priest. Then the dam broke and assusations poured in. The Pope walked back his defense of the guy. The Pope is appointing this Archbishop to a post that is charged with handling wayward priests. The Archbishop says he did not violate to Catholic law by transferring the priest instead of turning him over to civil authorities. 

Perhaps it is safe to say there is less sexual abuse among Catholic clergy today than there was in the past. It is not the case, however, sexual abuse has stopped altogether. The Freedom From Religion Foundation Newsletter lists all cases of crime for all clergy of all religions which appears in newspapers. New cases of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy show up regularly.  Most of the cases of clergy sexual abuse are in Protestant churches not affiliated with any of the big denominations. An exception to the latter is the big sexual abuse scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention.  The Catholic cases are most interesting to me because of the claims made the Church, especially the Bishops' organization, they have the right to instruct the rest of the country about lofty moral standards. 

That the Archbishop of Argentina made a mistake in dealing with the accusations is indicative of the swelled heads that can result from the Catholic narrative clergy tell about themselves. They believe they have been chosen to lead the church by Jesus himself. Most of the clergy take this information and perform their duties admirably. A young man with something wrong in the brain, however, might see this as a license to do what mere secular people are not allowed to do. 

The Pope has rightfully admonished his clergy to be servants to the parish rather than a powerful bureaucracy running people's lives from Rome. I think the narrative about clergy being selected by Jesus to be in positions of authority will continue to override any message of humility in the minds of some priests. We have seen it in the past and it continues in the present.


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