A Reality Check about Bishops and “accountability”

SNAP
February 9, 2015

http://www.snapnetwork.org/_a_reality_check_about_bishops_and_accountability

I hate to see hopes raised and then dashed. So at the risk of being the skunk at the garden party, let me make two points about the possibility of “new” church “processes” that allegedly will “ensure accountability” by complicit bishops.

[ncronline.org]

First, over the past 2.5 years, not a single one of the 4,000 bishops in the world has found the courage to even publicly say “Bishop Robert Finn did wrong.”

(Yes, it’s now been two and a half years since a Kansas City judge found Finn guilty of refusing to give police thousands of images of child pornography from Fr. Shawn Ratigan’s computer.)

So if Catholic officials can’t bring themselves to denounce a bad bishop, is there any real chance they’ll be able to discipline one?

(In fact, some church officials still defend Finn, notably Bishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas.)

Second, did Pope Francis need some “new process” to oust “The Bishop of Bling?” Nope. Has any pope tried to fire a bishop and but given up because he couldn’t find an appropriate “process” to use? Not that I know of.

So why do we need one?

We WILL get one, though. The pope’s abuse panel will recommended one. It will be adopted. Millions will feel some hope and relief.

And then, as the years drag on, and as cover ups continue, the protocol will be forgotten and ignored.

And those for many, those raised hopes will become dashed hopes.