The Christianity Thread

[Chula Vista]

Originally Posted by mordwyr

Broad, sweeping accusations are made against the Church, so broad they can be addressed only with the whole of the Catechism. If you have an accusation, please present a specific example, and then I will cite a specific part of the Magisterium that shows how that action is not in line with the Church's teaching.

So what. You have a rule book. Massive numbers of your members continue to break the rules in multitudes of ways for centuries and you do nothing to fix things. You just keep finding parts of scripture that you can twist into a pretzel in order to defend the rule breakers without denouncing them or actually FIXING the problems. And then you fall back on the lamest of excuses: Well, they are not following the rule book.

Knowledge of sexual abuse

Sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Boston
CARDINAL Bernard Francis Law became the first high-level Catholic Church official to be accused of actively participating in the cover-up of child molestation by predatory priests.

In January 2001 he was named a defendant in several low-profile cases involving pedophile priests, including one involving priest John Geoghan. The editor of the Boston Phoenix weekly, Susan Ryan-Vollmar, assigned reporter Kristen Lombardi to investigate. She wrote an article about the cases under the title "Cardinal sin". Mark Keane, a victim of Geoghan, believed that Law had direct knowledge that Geoghan, who worked in the Archdiocese of Boston from 1962 to 1993, was repeatedly molesting children. Keane said that the archbishop not only allowed the priest to continue working, but repeatedly moved him from parish to parish where he had daily contact with many defenseless children (one of whom was Keane). New editor of the daily Boston Globe newspaper Martin Baron set the Spotlight investigatory team to work on the case in September 2001. Lombardi acknowledged that the Globe may have had the story before she did, but was delayed somewhat pending the release of sealed records.

Resignation as Archbishop of Boston

Following the Boston Globe's public exposure of the cover up by Cardinal Law (and his predecessor Cardinal Humberto Medeiros) of scores of pedophile priests in the Boston Archdiocese, Law had little option but to submit his resignation as Archbishop of Boston to the Vatican, which Pope John Paul II accepted on December 13, 2002. Law wrote in a personal declaration The particular circumstances of this time suggest a quiet departure. Please keep me in your prayers. and moved to Rome. In July 2003, Sean O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap. was named the new Archbishop of Boston. The Boston Globe said in an editorial the day after Law's resignation was accepted that "Law had become the central figure in a scandal of criminal abuse, denial, payoff, and coverup that resonates around the world". A letter urging Law's resignation had been signed by 58 priests, mostly diocesan priests who had sworn obedience to Law as their direct superior; the editorial said that this letter was "surely one of the precipitating events in his departure." The Globe's exposé of the scandal was the subject of an Oscar-winning film ('best picture'), Spotlight, released in the US in November 2015, in which Law was portrayed by Len Cariou.

In a statement, Cardinal Law said, "It is my fervent prayer that this action [his resignation] may help the Archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed. To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness.". While no longer Archbishop of Boston, Law remains a bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church; as a cardinal, he participated in the 2005 papal conclave. He was over the age of 80 and therefore ineligible to vote in the 2013 papal conclave.

Move to Rome

In December 2002, Law moved from Boston. When the state attorney general issued his report entitled Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston (July 23, 2003) he severely criticized Law, mentioning that "the Archdiocese has shown an institutional reluctance to adequately address the problem and, in fact, made choices that allowed the abuse to continue," but did not allege that Law had tried to evade investigation. And he did state that Cardinal Law had not broken any laws, because the law requiring abuse to be reported was not expanded to include priests until 2002.

In May 2004, John Paul II appointed Law to a post in Rome, as Archpriest of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, an honorary position with ceremonial duties.

Defend this with some pretzel logic mordwyr. "He wasn't following the rule book" is not an acceptable answer. Come on, take a stab at it with your own words.