Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Mixed Signals from Vatican on Abuse and Accountability

By Phil Lawler
Catholic Culture
September 26, 2014

http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/the-city-gates.cfm?id=890

Yesterday, buoyed by the latest news from the Vatican, I concluded a happy comment by observing that with the removal of a Paraguayan bishop:

The message from Rome is loud and clear: It doesn’t matter what else you do; if you don’t protect children from abuse, you’re out.

Today the Vatican press office released a statement that loudly, clearly said something quite different. Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano was removed, we are told, because of his “difficult” relations with other prelates in Paraguay.

Really? Can a bishop be yanked out of office because he doesn’t get along with his colleagues? (St. Athanasius wouldn’t have survived under that sort of policy.) Are we to believe, then, that a failure to be cordial is a more serious offense than the promotion of a priest who had been declared dangerous to children?

And if there were tensions between Bishop Livieres and the other bishops of Paraguay, what was their source? Did they arise from differences of opinion about the value of liberation theology—as defenders of the deposed bishop now allege? Or was it, rather, the refusal of Bishop Livieres to recognize the need—which all his colleagues recognized—to safeguard young people?

One day the Vatican takes a decisive action, which is interpreted universally as a strong indicator of new seriousness about sexual abuse and episcopal accountability. The very next day the press office issues a statement that muddies the waters. Once again critics of the Church are saying that the Vatican doesn’t take the issue seriously, and defenders of the faith are sadly shaking their heads.

In other news, this week marked the first meeting of a Vatican commission set up to make some sense of the Holy See’s communications strategy. It can’t happen too soon.