Go here to read the article. Bishops are not trained to play Dick Tracy. Whenever a complaint alleging serious misconduct by a priest is made, those making the complaint should be advised to contact the local cops. The priest should be told that a complaint has been made and that the bishop has ordered an internal investigation at which he may be heard. He should also be informed that the bishop has advised the complainant to contact the local secular authorities. This type of procedure is especially important when the alleged offense took place decades before and is purely based on the word of the complainant. If the secular authorities are contacted and conduct their own investigation, well and good. However their investigation has nothing to do with the Church investigation which should be conducted according to the procedures set forth by Canon Law. If the Church investigation clears the priest, that should be sufficient for the Church, absent new evidence surfacing. Let Caesar do what Caesar does and let the Church do what she does.
Under the Bus
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
these Bishops aren’t Fathers.. most are incapable.. (homosexuals)
We are seeing in real time fallout of the policy of elevating company men to the episcopacy in recent decades.
Seems like bishops need to get back to basics.
Getting diocesan staff who do not want to drive the bus themselves would be a good start.
Clerical ambition is an ugly thing.
“Getting diocesan staff who do not want to drive the bus themselves would be a good start.”
True, but for many bishops, plausible deniability is the whole purpose curial staff.
USCCB Theme Song- Cue: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in 3..2..1..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKC8iPeIvEA
In most organizations, the line workers have little regard for and have serious reason to doubt the support they will receive from management. The fact is the bureaucratic class has little in common with their apostolic predecessor.
Perfect Frank!
Luke 12:34: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”.
For every convert who joins the Church, about four Catholics leave. Since 2000, the annual number of baptisms has declined— from about one million each year to less than five hundred thousand, even as overall population has increased. In the past fifty years, the annual number of Catholic weddings has declined by 75%. It’s become so common for parishes to be closed and merged and erased that it scarcely makes the news any longer. And while there’s been a lot of handwringing over the collapse in the numbers of ordinations to the priesthood, the one area that saw growth— that is, among more traditional seminarians— has been increasingly discouraged by the bishops and by Rome.
In other news, in the early 2000’s, the USCCB annual budget was about $150 million. By 2024-2025 it had doubled to around $300 million. While some of that ballooning budget can be chalked up to inflation, and a large portion was due to federal funding for the USCCB’s facilitation of the importation of illegal immigrants; it’s hard not to conclude that managing decline has just gotten much more expensive than it used to be, with very little good to show for it.
Frank nailed it.
Fixed it for you Clinton 😉
Sadly, CAG, your edit does make it more accurate.
Remember that the bishop of the Covington boys turned on them immediately and only recanted when the boys started suing people for libel.
If that is the amount of spine you can expect when you are accused of looking at someone the wrong way, you can imagine what support you’ll get when accused of something more serious and salacious.
Can’t call bishops “Father”.