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	A Good Bad Week for Catholicism By Ross Douthat The New York Times April 27, 2010 http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/a-good-bad-week-for-catholicism/ Last Wednesday, the Vatican formally accepted the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty, the third Irish prelate to step down over his role in sex abuse cover-ups. The next day, a German bishop, Walter Mixa of Augsburg, offered his resignation over allegations that he’d been involved in physical abuse at an orphanage in the 1970s and ’80s. Then on Friday it was Belgium’s turn: The bishop of Brugges resigned after publicly admitting to having sexually abused a minor two decades ago. And over the weekend, Sweden’s lone Catholic bishop announced his willingness to resign over a woman’s claim that he’d failed to respond to an allegation of sex abuse against one of his diocese’s priests. You could call this an awful week for the church, but I’d call it a relatively good one. The crimes and cover-ups aren’t new; what’s new are the resignations, and the sense that bishops as well as priests are facing accountability for things done and left undone. This spirit of accountability hasn’t reached the college of cardinals yet, unfortunately, where a few retirements to monastic life would be extremely welcome. But change comes slowly, and compared to how the U.S. bishops responded to the crisis in 2002, the series of resignations and proferred resignations on the continent counts as progress. When critics call for Pope Benedict to go around firing erring bishops, his defenders often respond that this misunderstands the papal office. The pope isn’t the C.E.O. of Catholicism, Inc., they point out, with subordinates who serve at his pleasure, and the pope-bishop relationship is supposed to be based on fraternity and collegiality as well as authority. In the words of John Paul II, “the Bishop of Rome is a member of the ‘College,’ and the Bishops are his brothers in the ministry” — and you don’t just sack your brother because you don’t approve of something that he’s done. This is true up to a point, but only up to a point. Collegiality or no collegiality, the pope does have the power to remove bishops — and the mere existence of this power, under a vigorous pontiff, should suffice to encourage swift resignations in cases where a bishop’s conduct, past or present, has brought disgrace upon his office and his church. A great deal has been done in this pontificate to change the way the church handles sex abuse. But what Catholicism needs, above all, is for Benedict to instill a spirit of shame, penance and real accountability in the hierarchy. This week’s resignations suggest that he’s at least made a start.
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