It’s a Puzzlement

National Survivor Advocates Coalition
October 18, 2012

http://nationalsurvivoradvocatescoalition.wordpress.com/editorials/

There has been a growing number of news stories in recent days about the Vatican naming a coadjutor bishop for the Diocese of Armagh in the Republic of Ireland –a bella figura approach to packing the Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady off into retirement for his role in the sexual abuse scandal.

[Here’s a link to one of those stories]

There have been no news stories about the possibility of the Vatican removing Robert Finn, the criminally convicted Bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph, Missouri.

It’s a puzzlement.

There was news last week that Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of a bishop in Chile, Marco Antonio Ordenes Fernandez of Iquique, following the allegation that the bishop had sexually abused a minor.

There were no news stories last week that Bishop Finn had tendered a resignation for the Vatican to accept.

It’s a puzzlement.

At the Synod on the New Evangelization which opened last week at the Vatican, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, made a vague reference to the sexual abuse scandal in his opening remarks as the relator, the conductor, if you will, for the Synod and when asked at a press conference if the church would address the scandal as a major nexus point that has alienated Catholics, the Cardinal clothed himself in vagueness again saying, “The church is always called to reflect on herself. Every member of the church is called to ask, ‘Am I living out the faith to the fullest?’”

[[Here’s the link:]

Bishop Brian J. Dunn of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, did speak out at the Synod telling his brother bishops point blank that any new evangelization must address the scandal.

[The link]

After the Synod fathers heard Bishop Dunn’s appeal, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, said at a press conference that “ The church is not afraid to admit its own mistakes.”

Hold on to your hats. Think he was speaking about the crisis?

Nope.

He was speaking about the late fifteenth century, early sixteenth century Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI of medieval and television fame.

As the church in Milwaukee fights tooth and nail in and after the collapse of bankruptcy settlement talks, most likely among other things to keep the record of the Dolan years in regard to the handling of sexual abuse under lock and key, Dolan comes clean to the world about a five centuries dead pope’s lovers. Not only did he have one lover, Dolan informs us, but he had many. Hadn’t you been wondering?

The jokes abounded but the Cardinal who is scheduled to preside over the Al Smith Dinner with both US Presidential candidates in attendance on Thursday evening in New York, couldn’t get himself to the gravitas of his Canadian brother bishop’s call to match up reality with new evangelization.

[Here’s the link]

It’s a puzzlement

Then again, maybe not.

To borrow another line from the “King and I” it’s “ Et cetera, Et cetera, Et cetera.”

— Kristine Ward, Chair, National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC), KristineWard@hotmail.com