By Bernie Tafoya
Wbbm
April 23, 2010
http://www.wbbm780.com/Prominent-Chicago-Catholic-Calls-On-Pope-For-Tough/6879700
A prominent Chicago Catholic is calling on Pope Benedict to take tougher action against bishops who looked the other way when they learned priests in their diocese had molested children.
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke says Pope Benedict should force any bishop to resign if he has ever transferred child molester priests to other parishes or dioceses.
Today, a Belgian bishop resigned and admitted that he had molested at least one child when he was a priest and early on when he had become a bishop.
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| Photo by Franco Origlia |
In 2002, when the priest sex abuse scandal erupted in the United States, Burke was among those named to a National Review Board to oversee initial efforts by the Catholic bishops in the United States to start cleaning up its act.
Burke says she met in the Vatican with the pope in 2004, when he was still Josef Cardinal Ratzinger. She says they and others talked for two-and-a-half hours about the priest sex abuse scandal and the need for transparency.
Burke says Benedict "surely listened" and that she does "believe he has shown some movement. But, we're talking about a bureaucracy…that's 2000 years old" and "you can't expect them to think out of the box like we do,".
Should the pope resign? Justice Burke doesn't believe so, even though recent reports indicated he had knowledge of a priest-molester being transferred when he was head of a diocese in Germany.
Burke says the pope is the best person to handle the job of cleaning up the priest sex abuse mess worldwide and "must lead us out of this darkness".
The Illinois Supreme Court Justice says bishops who mishandled priest sex abuse cases "must resign" so that lay Catholics around the world "can start trusting a little bit about what's going to happen for the safety of their children".
Burke says she's happy, in one way, about the erupting scandal in Europe because more information and allegations are coming out. She says that's good because "it needs to be cleaned up. The culture has to be changed".
Justice Burke says Catholic lay people must keep the pressure on church leaders.
As for Burke's personal relationship with the Catholic Church, she says, "this has not destroyed my faith. It's a disappointment in the administration of my Catholic Church.
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