Headlines, New Poll Grim for Catholic Leaders
By Cathy Lynn Grossman
Ouch. Adding to a run of harsh headlines, there's now a New York Post story out of Albany citng a new poll that says New York voters think "the Catholic Church is too involved in politics." The Quinnipiac University survey found 43% saying Catholic Church leaders are too involved, with only 11% saying they're not involved enough. Among Catholics, 33 percent say the church is too involved and only 17 percent not involved enough. Voters also disapprove by 55-38 of Catholic lawsuits against President Obama's contraceptive insurance coverage mandates -- though Catholics narrowly approve, 51-45.ORIGINAL POST: Nuns under fire. Charges of payoffs to abusive priests to quit quietly. Vatican leaks. These are rough news days for Catholic leaders, from the Pope to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of NY and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.. Let's start with Busted Halo, the Catholic web site aimed at young adults. It's on the street with protesters who are "standing with the sisters" in the ongoing dustup between the Vatican and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Folks are marching with signs of love for nuns, while the LCWR leadership is meeting to discuss an official response to a Vatican takeover after it was decreed that they were not sufficiently active in anti-abortion/anti-gay marriage actions. It seems the sisters were focused on social justice instead. And that was just fine with the supporters in the site's video. However, Busted Halo didn't talk to folks who think the Vatican is right on it's emphasis on core doctrine. Next up: Dolan. While he was bishop of Milwaukee in 2003, he vigorously denied that the diocese was paying abusive priests to quit the priesthood with a voluntary move to laicization (the official term for the Vatican removing ministerial status). Ah, but the Milwaukee Post found the records of financial council meetings, attended by Dolan, where those very payments, up to $20,000 per priest, were discussed and approved as a cost-cutting measure to avoid litigation, delays and to escape lifelong responsibility for the priest. Archdiocese of Milwaukee spokeswoman Julie Wolf told the Associated Press: "It's not new news...SNAP sounds like they're saying these were kind of payoffs to priests who had substantial allegations against them." She said the payments were to help the men transition to lay life without completely losing access to needs such as health care.Asked for a respones to the Post story, Dolan's spokesman, Joseph Zwilling, told me today: The Cardinal has read and supports the statements made yesterday by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.Meanwhile, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is not buying the idea that creibly accused abusive priests should be turned loose, unsupervised, on an unsuspecting society. It has a lengthy list of Dolan's actions and ommisions on dealing with abusive priests. And Wolf's remarks were brushed aside by SNAP Midwest director Peter Isely, who told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: You don't give a bonus to a man who rapes children. If they paid them anything it should have been for therapy and counseling.Speaking up in the Cardinal's camp is the conservative MediaReport.com, which savages the New York Times Catholic Church coverage. Such settlements happen "all the time" in education, it says. Pope Benedict XVI faces criticism that he has failed to reform the unwieldly bureaucracy of the Church, the Curia. Documents recently leaked to Italian media reveal mismangement and corruption.CAPTIONBy Andreas Solaro, AFP/Getty ImagesOver to Rome now where the contretemps over the Curia continues. Any thought that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Bavaria, who became Pope Benedict XVI, would "bring some German efficiency to the opaque Vatican bureaucracy, the Curia," is withering, writes Tom Heneghan in a Reuters analysis of the Vatican leaks scandal at Reuters. The spotlight is on the leaks of embarrassing "confidential documents on everything from Vatican finances to private papal audiences (that)make his papacy look weak and disorganized," and appearing to be rife with "corruption and cronyism." Heneghen describes the church bureacracy as a centuries-old "jumble of overlapping departments, commissions and tribunals seems more suited to an intrigue-filled Renaissance monarchy than a modern and transparent democratic government... "I'm not sure anyone has ever really controlled it, or can control it," (says) Thomas F.X. Noble, history professor at Notre Dame University in Indiana...Chester Gillis, professor of theology at Georgetown University in Washington sees Benedict's personality behind the lack of reforms that the pope once promised: He's a solitary scholar and he's not interested in the bureaucracy... His real ambition seems to be to finish the third volume of his book.Another expert, Christopher Bellitto, a Catholic Church historian at Kean University in New Jersey, looked back at a series of more public steps by Benedict and branded this "a tin ear papacy... This all seems to be a power game that matters only to the power players," he said. "It seems to be a Church hierarchy further distancing itself from the people in the pews.Not only does reform seem unlikely under Benedict, Heneghan concludes, it will be tough for his successor. Fully a third of the cardinal electors who will choose the next pope are now members of the curia. ARE YOU WATCHING... the leaks come to light with surprise, or sadness or both?
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