WORCESTER (MA)
Boston Globe
By Lisa Wangsness | GLOBE STAFF MAY 27, 2013
The drunken driving case against Bishop Robert J. McManus of Worcester is scheduled to take its next turn this week in a Rhode Island courtroom. The prelate faces civil penalties and criminal charges, which include an allegation that he left the scene of an accident.
But past practice suggests it is unlikely that his employer, the Roman Catholic Church, will take strong action against him.
“There is no clear mathematical formula for deciding exactly how they will react,” the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter, said of the Vatican’s process for disciplining bishops. “They look at the whole context of the situation. But the desire is to save the bishop and keep him in his ministry, as long as it’s not harmful to the diocese.”
Reese noted that a number of US bishops have survived drunken driving cases in the past. Salvatore J. Cordileone, the archbishop of San Francisco, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in 2012, when he was still archbishop-elect; he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and went on to be installed. The late Archbishop John Roach of St. Paul and Minneapolis was arrested for drunken driving in 1985; he lost his license temporarily but served another decade before retiring.
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