NEW JERSEY
Father Kenneth Lasch
Thursday February 9, 2017
Website Editor’s Note: The admission of Pope Franics that there is corruption in the Vatican is no surprise. Hints of the same have been in the news from time to time but not until now has Pope Francis himself been so open about it. Moreover, it is no secret that the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI was motivated in part by his inability to institute a reform of the curia. He admitted that he no longer had the stamina to carry out the demands of the papacy that surely included administration of the Roman Curia.
Pope Francis has adverted on several occasions to the lingering issue of sexual abuse. Many would like to assume that the issue has been resolved but nothing could be further from the truth. The Royal Commission on Sexual Abuse in Australia is about to publish the results of an extensive and intensive examination of sexual abuse in Australia, a significant portion of which deals with child abuse by Roman Catholic clergy and it is very damaging.
But even here in this country, the issue is not dead. There are still allegations that have yet to be fully resolved and there are priests who continue in positions of influence especially in vocations ministry whose past misconduct surely disqualifies them for ministry much less vocations ministry to seminarians and prospective candidates for the priesthood. In any other profession, they would loose their license to practice. It is interesting that any layperson that in the process of vetting is found to have been guilty of sexual misconduct of any kind is automatically disqualified for volunteer ministry. However, a priest who has had such a history of sexual misconduct may still function. What’s wrong with this picture?
In the words of one commentator, dealing with certain members of the hierarchy is like dealing with the mafia. That comment was repeated by the former governor of Oklahoma, Frank Keating, the first chairman of the National Review Board established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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