The Irish bishops: more of the same double standard

While the outcome of the meeting does seem disappointing initially, I am reserving judgment until after the Holy Father's pastoral letter to the people of Ireland, which may provide more clues as to steps to rescue the dying Church in Ireland.

"Errors" and "Omissions". Sounds like a mistake made by your real estate agent. When they start referring to this issue as "Crimes against Humanity", we'll know they've gotten serious.

Good for you, Tom! You nailed it. More than a few bishops and cardinals should be in U.S. prisons for aiding and abetting (in not committing) felonious behavior. Same goes for Ireland, Germany and any other nation if we scratch deeply enough betwen the veneer of bogus pietisms foisted on us the our putative leadership.
The answer is to start withholding our money from the ecclesiastical boys club. Money talks. Of course, we, the laity who are expected to docily pay pray and obey, will be told that the commandments of the church include one to contribute to the support of the church. Was that meant to include billions of dollars in reparations for criminal behaviour by the clergy? I think not.
The clerical culture truly needs to be torn out root and stock and replaced by the kind of participatory Christianity that marked the early Church. The early pagans said of Chrisitians: "See how they love one another." They didn't mean the disgusting "boy love" of depraved clerics.

Catholic children, youths, seminarians, vulnerable adults are merely sexual opportunities for any Roman Catholic cleric who can get away with 'secret' 'hidden' abuses of his victims. Or the sadistical abuses of prelates who inflict starvation and violence on Catholic children, like in schools and orphanages.

It only concerns the Vatican if the scandals become very public and the coffers empty. The Vatican still hushes up brand new cases of bishops abusing children, bishops having child pornography, what about the African and Indian continent... will these countries suffer from clerical predation for decades and decades too? Fresh victims of the hierarchy, is this where most of the newer cases of clergy predophile predations will come from?

It is disordered to have an all male clergy without any women being ordained. This unbalance and lack of community by not ordaining women is so harmful to the church and the world.

Tom Roberts has it exactly right. This response by the hierarchy is terrible; it is almost as bad as the original cover-ups. How can they be so blind to what they have done, to the damage they continue to cause by this kind of mealy-mouthed statement?

How many millstones will they need in ireland and in the vatican?

The full text of the final statement is here: Final statement of pope-Irish bishops meeting

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"...the report of the meeting between the pope and the bishops was profoundly disappointing."

An excellent commentary. It expresses exactly what almost every Catholic layperson I know has been asking. It is overshadowing everything else - positive and negative - about the Catholic Church. "How did this happen?" and "Why are those Bishops who passed those abusive priest around still here?" are repeated over and over and over again.

The Pope acts like he knew NOTHING until just this morning.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8517744.stm
http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vis/dinamiche/a1_en.htm
He must be watching too many HOGAN'S HEROES reruns.
SERGEANT SCHULTZ he is not!

The Irish people kept the Faith in the face of 400 years of persecution. It took the Irish bishops only 50 years to destroy that faith!

Unrelenting blather from one and all. Accountability is an alien concept among these
practiced deceivers....One and all.

Somehow for some reason, they just don't get it, or...they do but their response is based on a longer term strategic assummption that they will get away with it. Please God, help us to not allow that.

I'm sure that "errors of judgement and omissions" had something to do with the abuse of children and young people by some priests and religious. But to state further that they "stand at the heart of the crisis", is quite a stretch. I would agree that this is a clear instance of a double standard.

"Episcopal speak" abounds! People are fed up and unwilling to accept a double standard on this or on any church issue. How do bishops remain unscathed for their part in enabling the sex abuse of innocent children of good and faithful parishioners? For that matter, how is (the so-called 'great') John Paul II remaining faultless? Most of these abuses took place during his watch, and he turned a blind eye to them. One would think that this alone would block JPII from advancing toward sainthood.

Benedict XVI continues in this charade. It seems that Pope, Cardinals, Bishops will do anything -- even appear ridiculous to the church and the world -- to protect their own ecclesiastical club.

I will wait until I hear the Pope's letter to the Irish faithful, but from what I've heard of this meeting, and, indeed, all of this obscene mess that has gone before in the US and other countries, is that there will be a lot of facile statements and no real consequences. No member of the clergy or hierarchy will be forced to resign and/or be excommunicated. We, the laity, will continue to be condemned by that same group of men for trying to live our lives in the Catholic Faith the best way we can.
I am at the point of not only considering leaving the Catholic Church, but Christianity. The more I see of this power structure, the less I can believe in Jesus as the Messiah--either these men don't know the message of Jesus, or Jesus isn't doing anything to punish the ones who are doing these things in his name, which means he can't be the Messiah.
Is there a chance for the Pope and, indeed, the clergy around the world to accept this moment as a turning point for the Church? I'd like to think so.
I'm not holding my breath, for the hierarchy has, for way too long, not cared about how the faithful suffer or what we think.

Tom Roberts wrote:   “…how did it come to pass that bishops hid the problem,   lied about it,   callously passed on priests to other locations,   failed to inform legal authorities about serious crimes and now reduce it all to ‘errors of judgment’ and ‘omissions’.   …a stunning double standard."

Bishop Geoffrey Robinson gave the best answer when he observed that the Catholic hierarchy had devoted themselves to “managing” the scandal,   both during and after-the-fact,   to protect the institution and its ordained leadership,   rather than honestly address and remedy a systemic malfunction in the hierarchical feudal-styled governance and disciplines of the Church,   which created the environment where wide-spread abuse of the vulnerable could occur and then be covered up.
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He also points out that there is systemically an unhealthy psychology regarding leadership,   power   and   sex   (the latter being often an implement of power).     Bishops have vowed loyalty to the person of the pope,   and   priests have vowed loyalty to their bishop.     Such loyalty oaths trump ALL other considerations in our ‘top down’ Roman Church.     Even violating the laws of God takes a backseat to oaths protecting the institution and those who hold the power within it.     That is a wrong-headed and distinctly non-Christian model — a holdover from the Dark Ages — in need of major changes.
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There is written documentation among clergy going back as far as 1950,   proving that the Vatican was fully aware of the degree and extent of abuse occurring universally within the Church…   and who the guilty clergy were.     Recommendations to laicize certain priests were ignored.     Abuse and cover-up was nothing new even back then — notably,   PRE-Vatican 2.
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Historical records going back to the Middle Ages document sexual abuse of children and women by clergy — including popes allowing abortions prior to quickening for women impregnated by priests and religious.     The only people who didn’t know were those laity outside of the hierarchical loop of knowledge and “management” of a despicable situation with strong historical roots — the powerful using and abusing the powerless.
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It was a combination of rapid electronic media communication and a predominantly literate society that finally blew the lid off of the worst of secretive clericalism and its abuses.     Small wonder that certain of the now exposed bishops have railed against the media and “uppity” laity demanding full disclosure and serious penalties for the culprits.     The gig was up.     There has always been a “double standard”,   only now,   everyone is aware of the hideous reality of rampant mortal sin and criminal behavior at the highest levels within the institutional Church.     Enabling a crime (or sin) makes one an accessory to the crime,   regardless of loyalty oaths,   "fraternity"   or ostensibly “good” intentions.     The word "fraternal" has apparently come to mean that bishops should "hang together so that they will not hang separately".     The last gasp of dishonorable and corrupt leadership is shown in attempts to shift the focus,   use minimalist terminology   and   investigate everyone but themselves.
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[Note that the 2002 Charter of the USCCB,   with Vatican approval,   excludes the bishops from investigation and penalties,   instead focusing primarily on intrusive background checks and credit checks of laity…   even lay volunteers who clean the parish church and have no direct contact with children.     The laity in the pews were NOT the source of this sexual abuse scandal!     Meanwhile,   sexual scandal among the ordained,   including bishops,   continues to bubble up like a cesspool.     The VIRTUS program is a product of a 'captive insurance risk management group'   (National Catholic Risk Retention Group, Inc.)   whose primary shareholders are otherwise now liability-uninsurable Catholic dioceses.     Their Website states their primary function is "managing and financing risk liability".     It's all about protecting material assets and bishops.     This is not unlike the Dublin diocese taking out additional insurance policies in anticipation of sexual abuse becoming public — as reported by the independent investigation of the abuse.]
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God’s people,   who are THE Church,   deserve better leadership,   moral leadership,   true shepherds who will be the face of Christ to the flock.     The Vatican response today seems to indicate that business will proceed as usual — however "heinous" the crimes of that business might be.     Yes,   there are many good and faithful priests in our Catholic communion,   and I have been privileged to know many of these honorable men.     It grieves me that these holy pastors have often found their years of service to God and God's people,   tarnished in the public opinion by the action or inaction of others in leadership positions within the institutional Church.

When the Pope admitted that the Bishops were at fault for condoning the abuse, I hope to God that he was standing before a mirror with his eyes wide open at the time!!!

As Ratzinger was the #2 leader in the Church for nearly 20 years before becoming Pope and he was at the headquarters when all the reports came in worldwide, he knew the extent of the situation better than most, so what did he do to change things, then or now???

Mr. Roberts, my reaction to the Vatican event paralleled yours all the way. I also was struck by the self-serving resulting from admitting only "errors of judgement and omissions." Like you I hope the Irish won't let that stand.

It's amazing how one hopes to hear/read something like what Peter (metaphor for institutional church) said when reconciling after denial of Jesus (representing the "used", reviled, vulnerable and others on the margin)--- "I love you.... I really love you!" and then living it. We keep waiting...

Bravo! This is the best commentary I've read on the statement issued yesterday by the Vatican. Yes, indeed, a profound disappointment.

The bishops from the pope down are bad, self-serving men who will not face their complicity in the trashing of the
Roman Catholic Church. They worship their prestige, their bellies and their retirements. Too bad Louis Carroll isn't around for an ecclesial version of Through the Looking Glass.

I could not agree more with Tom Roberts’s analysis of the report of the Irish bishops’ meeting with the pope. The meeting between the pope and bishops predictably produced nothing of significance, and anyone who hoped it would should have known better. The pope reaffirmed his previous statements that the priestly sexual abuse was a "heinous crime" and a “grave sin." The bishops’ acknowledgement that "errors of judgment and omissions" were committed skirts the issue as Roberts said.

As far as I know, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin is the only bishop throughout the world who has categorically stated that the sexual abuse of children “was, is, and will always be sinful and criminal.” The key word is criminal! If that is true for predator priests, it certainly is true for the bishops who protected and enabled those priests to continue abusing children. At the heart of the abuse scandal are the bishops not the abuser-priests. And the bishops have yet to take any responsibility for their actions.

Former auxiliary bishops of Dublin were clearly singled out by the Murphy Report for protecting and covering up for abuser-priests. Martin has called for those bishops to examine their consciences (something lacking in the way they deal with the abuse) and to do the right thing: i.e., resign.
But the bishops continue to put their heads in the sand. Here is an egregious example of an auxiliary bishop who not only doesn’t get it, but who continues to make excuses for his “errors of judgment and omissions.” In reply to Martin, Bishop Mahony stated that the archbishop had no idea how traumatic it was for him and others who had to deal with allegations without protocols or guidelines in the matter of sexual abuse. That a bishop could make such a statement is obscene.

The bishops didn’t have any protocols to guide them, so they protected their priests at the expense of innocent children. How about the Gospel and the Beatitudes? I believe they are our guides for how we treat others. Enough said.

The bishop was traumatized. How does his trauma compare to the trauma experienced by innocent children? How traumatic was it for those innocent children, knowing that someone they trusted took advantage of them? How traumatic has it been for so many survivors of abuse who went from an innocent childhood to a life often filled with emotional problems, dysfunction in relationships, lack of any self-esteem, and refuge in alcohol or drugs to ease some of their pain? How traumatic has it been for those children as they grew up, keeping this horrible secret to themselves and often blaming themselves that somehow they were responsible for what happened to them? How traumatic was it that these children that predator priests and enabling bishops took away their faith?

Roberts states that some people might consider his analysis unjustifiably harsh. Actually, I think he is too charitable. There is a double standard in the church, one for the bishops and another for the rest of us. Unfortunately, for the bishops thinking Catholics no longer accept that standard.

Tom,

Thank you for a concise summary.

"[The meeting's] results are statements that seem, given the magnitude of the offense, more self-serving than illuminating."

The score is once again HIERARCHY-1 & LOWERARCHY-0

I am a Christian that has voted with my feet and my money.
Also, I now have a more direct and more personal relationship with my Creator.
This foolishness just confirms my decision.

And to think, they once had me believing that it was a mortal sin to even go through the door where I now worship.
It has taken a lot of anger & prayer to overcome my 12 years of parochial school indoctrination in addition to 30+ years of attendance.

“No bishop I know would stand in a pulpit and instruct a congregation to handle their misdeeds in that manner.”

Now instead of focusing on sins (mine not theirs) I have a better mantra:

I am a child of God.
God loves me.
God wants His good for me.
God wants me to take good care of myself and others.
John 13:34
This "new" commandment has fantastic placement in the book of John between Jesus' washing the feet and His prediction of Peter's denial.

Today I can focus on asking for His will and the grace to carry it out.
Now I can substitute gratitude for His gifts instead of anger over the demands of men with self declared infallibility.
I wake up in the morning saying “thank you” instead of echoing words written (and approved) by someone else.

Joke of the day:
I used to think that RC was a travel agency because they arrange guilt trips.
Now I realize they are in fact a factory because they manufacture shame.

Via con Dios,
RJ

Tom, you are right on the money. The guys in the bishop's chairs are very good at condemning the sins of the laity, and even female religious, but very bad at identifying, let alone condemning, their own. It is the kind of ecclesiastical double speak that Our Savior condemns in the Gospels.

Steve