BishopAccountability.org

Pope Francis’ tribunal on bishops who shield abusers is a good gesture but must show results

By Rudolph Bush
Dallas Morning News
June 10, 2015

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/06/pope-francis-tribunal-on-bishops-who-shield-abusers-is-a-good-gesture-but-must-show-results.html/

Pope Francis exchanges his skull cap with one donated to him as he leaves at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 10, 2015.
Photo by Alessandra Tarantino

It’s difficult still to go back and read the stories about the pedophile Rudy Kos, who damaged so deeply young boys when he was serving as a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

I’m reminded by Dan Michalski’s 1998 story in D Magazine about just how many red flags were ignored so that Kos could be enrolled in Irving’s Holy Trinity Seminary – a place that, in that time, had turned away from the strict sexual discipline that is part and parcel of Roman Catholic priesthood.

Kos went to Holy Trinity long before Charles Grahmann became bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

But Grahmann was in charge when the Kos scandal broke. He never read a file full of warnings on Kos and let the pedophile run a parish until 1992 despite continued warning of abuse. One of Kos’ victims, Jay Lemberger, committed suicide at age 20.

Then there was the case of Rev. Justin Lucio, who was removed from parish leadership after two young men said he pressured them into sex with promises of immigration help and threats he would turn them into the authorities.

Grahmann nevertheless had Lucio run a ministry for immigrants without oversight.

Grahmann didn’t resign until 2007, when he turned 75.

Thankfully, his successor, Bishop Kevin Farrell, understood the enormous threat pedophile priests pose, first to young people’s innocence and psychological health, but also to the faith and confidence of all Catholics.

Bishop Farrell has worked to make the diocese much more responsive to accusations of abuse, both in policy and practice.

But the entire Church needed more leadership on this critical problem.

Today, Pope Francis has taken a step in the right direction for all Catholics.

The pope has created a Vatican tribunal section to hold bishops accountable if they do not protect children from pedophile priests.

The gesture is important. What we need next is evidence that the tribunal will have teeth.

That means bishops shown to have shielded or shuffled child abusers must be removed from ministry and, to the fullest extent possible, held accountable in civil court. The process shouldn’t be handled as so many things in Rome are, behind closed doors.

The public must understand that the highest level of the Church is committed to protecting its most vulnerable.

There is little on this earth so evil as the corruption of innocence or the abuse of one person for another person’s pleasure.

The Church must be about the business of the good. And sometimes the business of the good is about the rooting out of evil.

This tribunal is a start. It’s work should be diligent, serious and consequential.

Contact: rbush@dallasnews.com




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