BishopAccountability.org
	National Survivor Advocates Coalition News Voice from the Desert October 18, 2011 http://reform-network.net/?p=12837 EDITORIAL EVEN AS INDICTING The inability of Catholic priests to know what to say to Sunday churchgoers (Kansas City Church Tiptoeing Around the Latest Scandal, New York Times, link to full story below) is, it seems to us, as indicting as the Jackson County (Missouri) Grand Jury’s indictment on the charge of failure to report child pornographic images on a priest’s computer to which Bishop Finn has already admitted. When priests of the Roman Catholic Church become mute in the face of a bishop choosing cleric over child, indeed their spines have fossilized and the work of a once proud immigrant Church so strong in education, health care, and the lifting up the oppressed is dishonored and nearly buried alive. The priests of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph who were given, by regular Scripture rotation no less, the amazingly fitting passage of “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto to God the things that God’s,” it appears were unable – or unwilling — to link the criminal indictment charge and forthcoming trial of their bishop and diocesan personnel on failure to report child pornography on a priest’s computer to this Scripture text in their homilies. This is politeness – and obedience – run amuck. These priests chose to sidestep, ignore, or at best allude to but not clearly speak to the elephant in every parish in this diocese this weekend. In doing so, they have allowed their bishop to become Caesar and they render unto him the fear of the loss of salary and pension. They become cowards in the preaching of the Gospel. Priests in this diocese, it seems, acted as though the bishop was the recipient of a letter with a parking fine enclosed and it was nothing about which to bother the locals and spoil the morning. They are building houses upon sand and selling short the response of the Catholic community to a priest willing to call a spade a spade, an elephant an elephant. “Tiptoeing” the New York Times called it. The Lord had a visual image for it, too. “If you are lukewarm I will vomit you out.” Before the forgiveness chorus comes on stage as a vigorous defense as the phrase goes in Kansas City, we’d like to say that the Church does teach forgiveness but not forgiveness without responsibility. Forgiveness is not withheld from women who have abortions – nor the men who co-produce babies who are aborted – Project Rachel is strong evidence of that in the Church. And the good thief still died. Forgiveness is not diminished if it is part of the package not the package itself. Priests could have said if the bishop is convicted they would walk with him to prison and beyond had they been willing to address the issue in its total reality which means facing that cleric over child is the chosen policy and it is wrong. And it needs to be rooted out. Does anybody think that if the bishop were held captive and sexually abused with pornographic images of him turning up on a computer technician’s regular rounds and the chancery staff and any other people who knew about it didn’t report it to authorities for five months — or even worse, mildly described the images to police in a bid designed to deflect their true nature – priests would have been silent Cals in their after discovery homilies? Before the “what about all the good priests” argument turns up, we’d like to say that all good priests know why these things have to be said. Because good priests don’t tolerate deception, duplicity and the putting and keeping of children in harm’s way — even from their bishops. Because their bishops, despite the lavish ceremonies of praise that install them, are not the Crucified and Resurrected One. Maybe if the Scripture is too high a bar, a bit of Tennyson might be a stepping stone for the priests of Kansas City-St. Joseph to begin to correct the curvature and weakness of their spines: “Tho much is taken, much abides, and tho we are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven” that which we are, we are; one equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate but strong in will, to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.” — Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) Contact: KristineWard@hotmail.com, 937-272-0308
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