US bishops ask Vatican to retain abuse rules

[emad]

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | May 15, 2005

A key group of US bishops is recommending that the Roman Catholic church retain its policy of removing from ministry all sexually abusive priests, despite concern from critics that the policy is too harsh.

The policy, approved by the bishops in the spring of 2002 and adjusted later that year when the Vatican demanded changes to protect priests' rights, requires that any priest who had committed even a single act of abuse, no matter how long ago, be barred from saying Mass publicly, from administering the sacraments, from wearing clerical garb, or from presenting himself publicly as a priest. The priest is then asked to lead a life of ''prayer and penance."

The policy was approved overwhelmingly while the church was under intense public pressure in the midst of the sexual abuse crisis. Some bishops and priests have criticized the policy as inflexible and as contrary to Christian teaching about the possibility of forgiveness and redemption.

Most notably, Cardinal Avery Dulles, a member of the faculty at Fordham University and the most prominent American Catholic theologian, wrote last year in America magazine, the Jesuit weekly: ''There is no reason to think that the protection of young people requires the removal from the ministry of elderly or mature priests who may have committed an offense in their youth but have performed many decades of exemplary service. Such action seems to reflect an attitude of vindictiveness to which the church should not yield."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/05/15/us_bishops_ask_vatican_to_retain_abuse_rules/

TOO harsh? A bit of Sharia-law-style retributive justice on pederasts would not go amiss.....

[SouthernDem2004]

1. How is this policy to harsh? They should be in jail.

[CoffeeCat]

2. How can defrocking a priest be "too harsh."???

I swear, I read this stuff, and I feel as if I've gone down the rabbit hole.

Why on Earth would someone believe that removing a priest from his job is too harsh a sentence for raping an innocent child?

It's not harsh enough!!

These bastards should be in prison! They're not paying enough when all that happens is loss of a job.

Can you imagine this mentality in any other profession? Can you imagine a teacher ONLY losing their job---for using the implied-trust of their profession to rape children?

Why is the priesthood above the law? Why does a hierarchy within this profession get to hand out these softball punishments--that allow child rapists to escape accountability?

This is sick!!

I'd like to meet with and talk to these morally bankrupt and evil people who think that a child-rapist's punishment should include NO jail time and the privilege of keeping his job.

This is so outrageous. It's beyond comprehension.

[0007]

8. I totally agree, in fact the Priest who abuses children

should face a stiffer penalty than others for obvious reasons.

I'm offended by this request by the Bishops of the United States, how dare they be so arrogance?

[MichiganVote]

3. Honest to God. When oh when will this church wake up?

Like changing these norms should even be up for discussion.

"There is no reason to think that the protection of young people requires the removal from the ministry of elderly or mature priests who may have committed an offense in their youth but have performed many decades of exemplary service. Such action seems to reflect an attitude of vindictiveness to which the church should not yield."

Says who? There is every reason to believe that every church should give these guys at any age the bum's rush.

Why is it considered vindictive to only remove from ministry abusive priests and yet the very sacraments of the RCC are denied to politicians who do their jobs representing US citizens and their right to an abortion?

[emad]

4. Exactly. Like an "exemplary service" teacher, doctor, social

worker, police officer, politician etc etc etc.

NO exemptions for so-called men of the cloth.

[Toots]

7. Megan's Law.....double jeopardy..sex offender's list

It has been determined and upheld by courts that sex offenders never change so they can have harsher penalties applied to them than other criminals. They can have the stigma of sex offender attached to their names for life and have to register their were-abouts like no other American citizen, even after they have paid their "debt" to society. IMHO it is a form of double jeopardy and should not be legal. I am not on the sex offenders side just on America's side. We need to follow the Constitution even if we think we are doing good. What good is the Constitution if we do not follow it?

[MichiganVote]

10. Extending the statue of limitations is a step in the right direction

The RCC doesn't recognize the US Constitution.

[Toots]

5. The priest is then asked to lead a life of ''prayer and penance.

But vote Democratic and be excommunicated. I guess they have made it plain what their priorities are.

[emad]

6. ...maybe join Opus Dei so he can whip himself every day to atone

for those sins....like their spiritual recipie for everlasting life guarantees....

[Catfight]

9. Take the word 'priest' away from these sick men and you have just

another pedophile that preys, not prays, on the innocent and helpless. The death penalty should be good enough for these sick men. NEWS FLASH: if you're a pedophile, you may hide under the title 'priest' and be 'safe' to rape young children. Join the priesthood NOW Pedophiles, they are waiting for you!

I would never allow my child near a priest. Parents that still allow their children around priest are asking for trouble. The catholic church needs to be shut down as a sanctuary of evil. There are no explanations and no excuses for these liars, rapist and thieves of children's souls.