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PDF versionPope broke canon law when he dismissed Aussie Bishop Morris: experts
by Dennis Coday on Feb. 02, 2012
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA -- The Pope acted against natural justice and the Catholic Church's own canon law when he sacked Bill Morris as Bishop of Toowoomba last May, two expert independent reports have found.
Queensland Supreme Court judge W.J. Carter wrote : "One could not imagine a more striking case of a denial of natural justice".
Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald.
Baloney. Diocesan bishops are
Baloney. Diocesan bishops are at-will employees who serve at the will of the pope. We may or may not agree with his decision, but he was perfectly within his rights to do what he did.
Are you a canon law expert?
Are you a canon law expert? I would put much more trust and credibility in your remark if an accredited and knowledgable canon lawyer such as Tom Doyle, OP were to say it. You may be the one full of baloney!
Someone "credible" would know
Someone "credible" would know how to spell "knowledgeable." If Tom Doyle is the only canon lawyer you know, you're in trouble.
Unfair criticism! Most
Unfair criticism! Most everyone makes mistakes in typing, and to take such a mistake and attack someone for it is pretty low. It certainly does not reflect the values of the Gospels. Perhaps you can do better next time?
Thanks, OHthor, for your
Thanks, OHthor, for your comment. Having taught English for over 30 years, I was surprised that I would make a spelling mistake. Yes, I have made a LOT of mistakes in the past, but spelling is usually not one of them. So, I double checked in my dictionary, the New Oxford American Dictionary, and found this:
knowledgeable |ˈnälijəbəl| (also knowledgable)
adjective
intelligent and well informed : she is very knowledgeable about livestock and pedigrees.
As a matter of fact, the first spelling given in an entry is usually the preferred. I stand by my original spelling and my comment on Tom Doyle, O.P.
Thomas Doyle is not the only
Thomas Doyle is not the only cannon lawyer I know, but he is the best one!!
JESUS & THE POPE .........
JESUS & THE POPE ......... Ultimately, what canon laws say is insignificant. Popes can change canon laws at will and can and do violate them with impunity.
The truly applicable rules here are the Gospels, yet popes, including the present one, disregard Jesus' commands continuously. Cowardly bishops acquiesce in papal misdeeds selfishly, bishop Morris being a rare exception, for which he has been ecclesiastically executed.
Corrupt curial officials know they are not accountable to anyone and are immune from lay oversight. Until some more bishops begin to behave like authentic Christians, Catholics' options appear mainly limited to withholding contributions, shunning and chastising corrupt bishops and complicit clerics and demanding that politicians enforce criminal laws against bishops.
In the US, politicians are even reluctant to enforce criminal child abuse prevention laws against bishops who facilitate child rapes. Moreover, no politician and no US bishop has even commented on the record about the current Philly prosecution of Anthony Bevilacqua's top assistant for running a massive child abuse conspiracy, even though a grand jury of everyday Philly citizens has indicated the conspiracy was clearly orchestrated by Bevilacqua.
Instead, the pope and US bishops are trying to divert the public's attention and head off growing Federal prosecutorial investigations of child sexual abuse. The hierarchy is trying to create electoral pressure on the Obama administration with a phony "religious liberty" crusade against contraceptive health insurance benefits for tens of thousands of hospital and university employees (including non-Catholics). Catholics are never compelled to utilize the contraceptive benefits if they would violate their consciences thereby, avoiding violations of their religious liberty .
Hopefully, US Catholic voters will see through this mystical charade and the bishops will get their just reward in accordance with American laws in the next administation.
Cynically, but typically, the bishops' key allies include wealthy US Catholic contributors that want (1) even lower taxes on the top 1 % to be paid for by cutting Federal poverty programs, as well as (2) another unnecessary, but devasting, new war in Iran.
What an utterly unChristian agenda--promote unplanned pregnancies, kill innocent Muslims and punish poor Americans. The pope and US bishops appear willing to accept these immoral results as the price of installing a US president who will give criminal bishops a Federal free pass.
please study more carefully
please study more carefully the history of our church, in particular as it is so well retold in the works of the Reverend Father Richard P. McBrien, in which we may discover that the bishop of Rome is just, in fact, another bishop, until these wojo-ratzo nazi-loving totalitarians came along
Your comment got me
Your comment got me thinking.
Some people like big, strong authority figures. It comforts them and makes them feel the world is structured correctly. It's important to them. What many fail to realize, however, is that not all people are made that way. For some, they are comforted and made to feel right by the ABSENCE of big, strong authority figures. The problem with the Church (and other institutions) is that one group fails to acknowledge the fundamental needs of the other. The Church, for example, is constructed with authority figures stacked on top of authority figures, making people whose constitution does not align along the authority axis feel alienated from their religion, or feel that their religion is foreign and uncomfortable. We need across the board to acknowledge and accommodate the diversity of people in the Church. We need to go way beyond, "I appreciate and respect your diversity. Now let's do things my way."
what would Vatican II say? Oh
what would Vatican II say? Oh I know:
In this Church of Christ the Roman pontiff, as the successor of Peter, to whom Christ entrusted the feeding of His sheep and lambs, enjoys supreme, full, immediate, and universal authority over the care of souls by divine institution. Therefore, as pastor of all the faithful, he is sent to provide for the common good of the universal Church and for the good of the individual churches. Hence, he holds a primacy of ordinary power over all the churches. Christus Dominus 2
And of course....
But the college or body of bishops has no authority unless it is understood together with the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter as its head. The pope's power of primacy over all, both pastors and faithful, remains whole and intact. In virtue of his office, that is as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the whole Church, the Roman Pontiff has full, supreme and universal power over the Church. And he is always free to exercise this power. Lunem Gentium 22.
Call no man 'vicar' for you
Call no man 'vicar' for you have only one Vicar in heaven.
Right David, and if we want
Right David, and if we want to really look with a fine glass into the Gospels: The only ones whom Jesus designated as his “alter ego” here upon what science tells us now is our round earth that circles around the sun and rotates on its own axis, are those we find in Matthew. 25: 31-40
34”” Then the King will say to those on his right hand, "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome,
36 lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me."
37 Then the upright will say to him in reply, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
38 When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you?
39 When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?"
40 And the King will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."””
These are the words of Jesus about who are his vicars on this earth.
Justiniano de Managua el 2 de feb, 2012
Well, the Pontiff behaves as
Well, the Pontiff behaves as if he were the successor of Emperor Constantine. Of course, Canon Law makes all things totally favorable to the Roman superpower. Peter, the original pope, couldn´t have imagined how his name has been invoked throughout generations for power -- something he wasn´t obsessed at all. Hadn´t it been theologically brazen, many pontiffs would have wanted to be considered successors of Christ or of God. What would you expect? Poor Bishop Morris!
Oh, yes: let us all give
Oh, yes: let us all give full and complete credence to every jot and tittle in every document that the self-serving clergy writes, approves and enforces. Or, as my dad said: a fool and his money are soon parted, and for very good reason.
So, it's curious, is it not,
So, it's curious, is it not, Paolo, that Benedict has repeatedly claimed that he cannot force bishops who protected pedophile priests to resign. He has no problem forcing a resignation from a bishop who suggests looking into optional celibacy for males and at least restudying the issue of ordaining women. He acted quite swiftly to get rid of Morris.
Yet he has not demanded resignations from bishops who protected child rapists and molesters - in fact he has sometimes promoted men who protected child rapists and molesters - while claiming that he does not have the authority to fire them. Benedict is talking out of both sides of his mouth on this issue. It could well be that he broke canon law - I am not a canon law expert and can't "rule" on this. But, if he did, it is not new. Rome/Benedict break(s) or ignore()s canon law when it suits them, but use it as a sledgehammer on those who displease them also when it suits them. Legal or not. Moral or not. Ethical or not. Honest or not.
Not really. Bishops do not
Not really. Bishops do not serve at the whims of the pope becuase according to Vatican II, bishop are not vicars of the pope. They are vicars of Christ. Bishops are not the pope's employees.
Oh Good - "Bishops are not
Oh Good - "Bishops are not employees of the Pope" Then why was this Bishop forced to resign for discussing the option of married men becoming priests and women becoming priests. The problem with this same-sex "cult" is the degree the Papacy and corrupt bishops will go through to maintain the same-sex cult of leaderships over the 1.5 billion Catholics. Amazing how these non-employee bishops who call for common sense and inclusion of women as wives of priests or as priests are swiftly "fired."
Suzerain fealty of the Middle
Suzerain fealty of the Middle Ages strikes again. Is there no end to madness.
Is there any possibility that the hierarchy can swap a little arrogance for wisdom. Wisdom, unfortunately is not in play in such a system. We have hard right catholics now acting as Muslims in a war like mood declaring jihad on DOMA, paranoid ideation of persecution on mandated health care accessing birth control. Men of reason have abandoned the church. The photo on the article says it all. Can anyone convey reason for the vicar dressed so unlike Christ, adorned in white with a jeweled party hat. Holiness is not a garb worn for all to see...try the prayer of St. Francis.
Jesuitical, The problem is
Jesuitical, The problem is the the leadership of the RCC has chosen cannon law over faith in Jesus Christ. They are not practicing The Way of Christ but are practicing Institutional Religion. They have lost most if not all their integrity over the past 20 + years because of the sexual, and financial crises. It this were not enough, they have made clear their practice of misogyny. This is very poor leadership to say the least.
Thak you for noticing the
Thak you for noticing the photo. I also thought about St. Francis.
I am not an expert in canon
I am not an expert in canon law, so I cannot comment on whether B16 acted in accord with or contrary to its norms; however, to simply state that the pope enjoys "full, supreme, and immediate" authority over anyone does not mean that Catholics do not enjoy protections from unjust judgments. Otherwise, the ministry of Peter devolves into fascism.
BINGO! (that widely heard
BINGO! (that widely heard proud Catholic cry!)
where were the past two popes during WWII?
In whose pockets were the episcopacies of Germany, Poland, Austria, Italy and others?
What faith did German generals profess, such as Himmler?
To what point have we now devolved since the bright promise of the Sixties and the birth of NCR? Since Luciani?
A "smaller, purer fishbowl" indeed
a purer race as well?
It seems to be forgotten that
It seems to be forgotten that the Catholic Church is an absolute monarchy. In such a governmental system, the monarch is the ultimate arbiter of the law. It used to be referred to as "the divine right of kings".
not surprising you can
not surprising you can present no support at all for this unsupportable allegation in any actual Church documents, and especially not in the Documents of the Second Vatican Council.
While not dismissing the
While not dismissing the significance of canon law in regards to Bishop Morris, at the very least he deserved to be treated with more respect. In 1970, then bishop Ratzinger signed a paper with fellow German theologians encouraging the Catholic Church to explore the possibility of optional celibacy. Fortunately Pope Paul VI did not perceive it as a threat or breech of ecclesiastical protocol, or else Bishop Ratzinger might have been working in the salt mines in Salzburg.
which just might have saved
which just might have saved us after all . . .
certainly by saving several of our greatest theologians and professors of our Faith.
With direct contact to the
With direct contact to the Divine, this man IS the Law unto himself; just ask him.
So re-hire, re-instate Bishop
So re-hire, re-instate Bishop Morris as his dismissal was illegal and wrong of the pope. Pope disobeys canon law and decency by dismissing Bishop Morris.
Re-instate Bishop Morris as his firing was wrong and illegal.
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