MONTPELIER (VT)
VTdigger
January 6, 2019
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Michael K. Smith, a practicing Catholic who was the secretary of administration and secretary of human services in Vermont under former Gov. Jim Douglas.
This past year has been a tumultuous time for the American Catholic Church.
In Pennsylvania, a grand jury alleges that over the course of the last 70 years the leaders of the Catholic Church covered up the sexual abuse of 1,000 children, and possibly a thousand more. The attorneys general in several more states are now investigating abuse by Catholic priests in their states.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former Vatican ambassador to the U.S., called on Pope Francis to resign. He accused the pontiff, and other high-ranking church officials, of covering up the sexual misconduct of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C.
And recently, just before U.S. bishops were to vote on a package of reforms aimed at increasing transparency to curb sexual abuse in the church, an edict from the Vatican halted any action. There are two schools of thought as to why the Vatican intervened. Most observers thought it was done to prevent an action that went beyond reforms the Vatican felt comfortable with. But to others, it was a way for the Vatican to prevent actions that did not go far enough.
To most Catholics their leaders are sending mixed messages. On the one hand, they are promising to come clean and take further steps to curb sex abuse in the church, but then on the other hand, they are seemingly taking small steps to achieve that goal.
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