MASSACHUSETTS
The Republican
By Anne-Gerard Flynn | aflynn@repub.com
on August 11, 2014
Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, will be installed as the ninth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, on Aug. 12 at 2 p.m. at St. Michael’s Cathedral, with a public reception at 5 p.m., at the Better Living Center on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield.
During an Aug. 5 meeting at the diocesan offices, Rozanski welcomed questions on a variety of topics, with the resultant interview, Springfield’s Bishop Mitchell Rozanski, loyal to Orioles, Church doctrine and being a listener, offering insight into the next generation of bishops, as well as into the Church under Pope Francis.
The Catholic Church has faced disgrace globally during the last decade, as victims of pedophile priests have broken years of silence, and unsealed court documents revealed patterns of cover up within dioceses, as suspected clergy were reassigned by bishops, rather than reported. The Church in the U.S., alone, has paid out billions in settlement awards to victims.
A United Nations committee recently accused the Vatican of violating an anti-torture treaty it signed, in 2002, by failing to report accusations of abuse to legal authorities.
Francis, who became became pope in March, has promised to hold bishops accountable for any failures of reporting, and he has appointed a commission to advise him on Church efforts on protection of minors, and outreach to victims. The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, in 2005, created a charter mandating what dioceses must do when sex abuse allegations are made.
Against this background, Rozanski was asked to what extent the Church’s failure to report clergy sex abuse contributed to a lessening of its influence on secular society.
Rozanski said that the Church cannot evangelize, “unless we ourselves are evangelized and rooted fully in the Gospel.” He spoke about the effectiveness of the 2005 charter, and the need for dioceses to stay vigilant. In terms of secular culture, he said, today’s “crime, drugs, general lack of respect for one another, is really based on in the disintegration of family life.”
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