DENVER (CO)
Crux
September 2, 2018
By Charles Collins
Is an “extraordinary synod” a key piece to the puzzle for finding lasting solutions to the clerical abuse crisis which has engulfed the Church for the past generation?
Over the past ten days, three bishops have said they have requested Pope Francis call a synod in light of the recent stories of abuse and cover-up in different parts of the world.
On Aug. 22, Bishop Philip Egan of the Diocese of Portsmouth, in southern England, wrote the pope asking for an Extraordinary Synod on the Life and Ministry of Clergy.
“Clerical sex abuse seems to be a world-wide phenomenon in the Church,” Egan wrote to the pope. “As a Catholic and a bishop, these revelations fill me with deep sorrow and shame.”
Egan suggested the proposed synod cover topics such as the “identity of being a priest [or] bishop,” and devising guidance on “life-style and supports for celibacy,” to proposing a “rule of life for priests [and] bishops” and establishing “appropriate forms of priestly [and] episcopal accountability and supervision.”
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