By Martha Hill
The News-Press
April 26, 2011
http://www.news-press.com/article/20110426/OPINION/110426019/1010/sports
 |
| Priests follow the Holy Thursday Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI after the rite of the washing of feet, in St. John in Lateran Basilica, in Rome, Thursday, April 21, 2011. Pope Benedict XVI warmly praised his predecessor Pope John Paul II in a Holy Thursday address days before John Paul's May 1 beatification, holding him up as a example of faith amid Western indifference to Christianity. |
If there's any dignity left in the Catholic Church, the beatification of Pope John Paul II, set for May 1, should have followed the church's strict guidelines for sainthood instead of fast tracking it as a political move to continue the silence of the Church's pedophile scandal.
In the Catholic Church, becoming a saint is a long and complex process that takes many years. In the case of John Paul II, however, Pope Benedict XVI waved a rule requiring a five-year wait to even start the process of beatification.
Pope Benedict XVI couldn't wait the required time to beatify his predecessor yet it took him at least 25 years to convince the hierarchy in Rome to remove Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado from the priesthood.
Fr. Degollado, a Mexican-born priest who worked mostly in Spain and Italy, was found guilty of raping an inordinate number of underage males, had two women and fathered six children dating back to 1956.
John Paul II was a close friend of Maciel, and he remained silent throughout his papacy. On John Paul II's three visits to Mexico, Maciel stood at his right hand. Later, John Paul II referred to him as "an efficacious guide to youth" and he heaped praise on Maciel on the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood in 2004.
It was not until John Paul II's death that the Vatican finally followed up on the allegations, which resulted in Maciel's removal from the priesthood.
The scandal of pedophile priests is not just the conduct of the priests themselves but also the coverup of the Catholic hierarchy, which not only failed to report abuse allegations to the civil authorities but also continued to reassign the offenders to other parishes.
So is the Catholic Church now naming John Paul II as the patron of pedophile priests?
Contact: mhill@news-press.com
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.