Or is it just a Rollover?
A few months ago Cardinal Law took bold and decisive action against the dissenting movement within the Archdiocese: well, no, not really. Instead, all he did was tell diocesan agencies to stop holding events at the most notorious dissenting parish, large, affluent Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Newton. After all, “Our Lady, Help Us Christians” was the launching pad of the self-important VOTF, and its pastor was vocally gay-friendly Rev. Walter Cuenin. For years, the archdiocese itself had been honoring this badly-misled parish by holding conferences and special services there. Most prominently, why on earth had they let Boston’s #1 dissenter (well, maybe he’s #2) have the honor of hosting Mother Teresa on her visit to Boston? That was a scandal.
It seems Cardinal Law finally got the point and ordered a stop to these affairs shortly before he resigned, but today, says the paper, Abp. O’Malley has lifted the prohibition in an arrangement worked out by Bp. Lennon, auxiliary for the western portion of the archdiocese.
My first reaction is that it’s an unfortunate move; really, this diocese could stand to keep a few subtle signs of official disapproval for dissent. Dropping this one suggests that the clergy can go back to the old status quo in which the bishop taught sound doctrine, but there wasn’t consistent follow-through at the parish level.
There is, of course, a challenging Gospel question here: ok, RC, “are you being envious because I am generous?” Gotta watch out for that.
Of course, if it turns out that this pastor has turned over a new leaf, and everything at Wally World starts drifting into, ohmigod, sound doctrine and practice, then the conciliatory move will be perfectly justified. But I won’t hold my breath.
It seems odd that with so many unresolved issues on the Archbishop’s plate, the one that the bureaucracy chose to resolve now was this, when for example, the Archdiocese still hasn’t answered the concerns of parents about the “Talking About Touching” program that is displacing ordinary religious education. Maybe the Abp. is not hearing enough from people who want dissenters corrected, not rewarded.
For lack of a better way to put it, I think Archbishop O’Malley needs to be a real hardass with the dissenters and otherwise troublesome elements in his jursdiction for some time before he moves into the “forgive and move on” stage. He’s got to show that there’s a new sheriff in town, and make a few examples to show that he’s not going to put up with the “good ol’ boy” network.
By the way, this is a genuine question to Catholic Light readers in general: Do dioceses have people who go on the road to attend Mass at parishes and spend a few day there to see that proper liturgy and the bishop’s directives are being carried out? Almost every job has a performance-review process after all.
Parishes are subject to episcopal visitations every so often (5 years?) ostensibly to address such issues, Sean.
I seem to be holding a fair number of unpopular opinions these days, but I think this result shows the folly of replacing a reliably orthodox shepherd (Cdl. Law) [consider his flat dismissal of the Common Ground Initiative] with a relative unknown (Abp. O’Malley) in order to satisfy the whims of the mob.
In fact, I’m reminded of these lines from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:
Why, I wonder, would anyone think the Boston Globe, which has never let an idiotic thought of the dissident James Carol go unpublished, would be likely to provide objective coverage of the scandal? Especially as before the story broke, the same paper was nodding approvingly at the publication of a few books suggesting that pedophilia (pederasty, actually) was morally neutral, and even downright positive.
Why was the witch-hunt concerning abuses at daycare centers in Massachusetts (e.g., AG Harshbarger’s prosecution of the Armitage family), later shown to be baseless, conveniently forgotten?
Why was it never mentioned that many of these cases had previously been settled quietly in order to spare the victims embarassment? It’s only in recent times that victim-status has become so highly prized that such considerations of decorum have been brushed aside in favor of the financial reward. The minimum payment in the Boston settlement is $80,000 to the victim, $20,000 to the parents, free psychiatric services for life, and instruction in whatever “spirituality” is desired. Not bad for a thirty-year old “inappropriate touch”. And how telling that the victims are now bickering with their lawyers over how to divy up the take.
Why was it not mentioned that shrinkdom has only recently pronounced pederasty incurable? Previously the party line was that it could be reversed with appropriate treatment. Why should a bishop be blamed for believing the medical profession when it pronounced on this issue?
Priestly pederasty is of course a more serious violation of trust than the same act performed by anyone else, but rationally the likelihood of its occurrence is much higher in the teaching profession. Not only is the rate higher, but the number of priests in this country is dwarfed by the number of teachers. Rationally, parents have more to fear from teachers and other “helping professionals” than from priests.
I think we Catholics have been duped. Our outrage at these terrible acts has been used against us, so that in our zeal to “clean house” we risk shooting ourselves in the foot. (Wheat and tares, you know.) The giveaway is the attempt at unconsitutional ex post facto laws to “get” the priest-perpetrators. Not to mention the absurdity of having the current Massachusetts AG moralizing in public about the situation when he himself enforces abortion-rights laws, which are the worst form of child abuse. I won’t even mention the scandal of the Massachusetts public education establishment sponsoring conferences for the instruction children as young as 12 in various “alternative” sexual practices, known as “Fistgate”.
Regarding what bishops did before: First of all, they reassigned and otherwise sheltered people who were clearly recidivists – not just first-time offenders. Second, sex abuse is and was a CRIME. It isn’t a bishop’s call to shelter those guilty of it – “curable” or not.
We all need to Pray the Rosary more and watch EWTN HOLY MASS on TV and do some private retreats more when we can. What GOD sees and what we see will always on earth be different,ours a smaller view,GODS a bigger VIEW. Its amazing when all of a sudden,once in awhile we really wake up to this and find Humility and then that dark cloud invades us and we go back to half awake on earth.Smile.We then seem to want to give advice more under this cloud because its so uncomfortable but we got to watch out ,remembering we are a Child of GOD JESUS. Smile!
We all need to Pray the Rosary more and watch EWTN HOLY MASS on TV and do some private retreats more when we can. What GOD sees and what we see will always on earth be different,ours a smaller view,GODS a bigger VIEW. Its amazing when all of a sudden,once in awhile we really wake up to this and find Humility and then that dark cloud invades us and we go back to half awake on earth.Smile.We then seem to want to give advice more under this cloud because its so uncomfortable but we got to watch out ,remembering we are a Child of GOD JESUS. Smile!