Guest Editorial: Vatican asks flock again for patience

Mankato Free Press.
March 02, 2019

https://bit.ly/2EtbDK4

The Eagle-Tribune occasionally publishes editorials that have appeared in other newspapers. This editorial originated with a sister newspaper, The Mankato (Minnesota) Free Press.

The Vatican summoned bishops from around the world for four days of prayer and debate last week over the Roman Catholic Church’s continuing crisis over clerical sex abuse.

While Pope Francis called for “all-out battle” against “abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth,” the prelates departed a week ago today without any concrete action. Nothing about abusive parish priests, nothing about the bishops who look the other way.

This is particularly disappointing considering that last November the Vatican blocked the U.S. Conference of Bishops from voting on proposals that would have sharpened policing of bishops in large part by involving lay experts.

With the message sent that Rome would not accept outsiders meddling in the authority of bishops, an American cardinal at the conference outlined a proposal to allow the “metropolitans,” the archbishops who oversee lesser bishops, more authority in investigating abuse allegations.

A few days before last week’s conference opened, the Vatican announced the defrocking of Theodore McCarrick, once the cardinal of Washington. McCarrick has come to symbolize the church’s problem with policing the hierarchy; it was apparently an open secret that McCarrick developed sexual relations with seminary students, but nobody in authority acted on that knowledge as McCarrick rose in prestige and influence. This example does not encourage us to trust that the bishops will police each other.

Francis appears to have belatedly grasped how badly the scandals have undermined the church. It is not unique in this, of course. We have seen in the United States alone significant predatory scandals in higher education, athletics, entertainment and government.

But religious institutions have a particular need for what Francis called “moral authority and ethical credibility.” And the repeated exposes of philandering and broken vows have corroded that authority and credibility.

This most recent conference did little to suggest that the Vatican has any idea how to restore its stature. It prompted a former member of a papal committee on protecting minors to tell the Washington Post: “I don’t think we can rely on the institution to clean up its act.”

That is not the message the impatient faithful want to hear from the Vatican.