CALIFORNIA
National Catholic Reporter
[the ad]
Michael Sean Winters | Apr. 16, 2015 Distinctly Catholic
The decision by some prominent Catholics in San Francisco to take out a full-page ad in that city’s major newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, calling on Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is deeply regrettable. Full Disclosure: A couple of weeks ago, a friend in San Francisco familiar with the plan to take out the ad called and asked my advice and I encouraged her not to do so.
Why is it a mistake? The issue of the accountability of bishops is a difficult one. Most of the discussion in recent years has focused on this issue through the lens of the clergy sex abuse crisis. Bishop after bishop was seen to have mishandled charges of clergy sex abuse against members of the clergy. This was galling to be sure. Since the adoption by the U.S. Bishops of the “Dallas Charter” on child protection, which set forth the promise of the bishops not to tolerate clergy sex abuse, and the explicit means for fulfilling that promise, such dereliction of responsibility is worse than galling. This is why there has been such a clamor for the removal of Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn. It is not just that Finn violated the civil law, which he did. He violated the Dallas Charter and thus questioned the commitment of the bishops to keep their own promises. He should have resigned the day he pled guilty for failing to report an instance of clergy sex abuse. The good people of Kansas City – and the whole country and, indeed, the world – are still waiting for the Holy See to remove him.
No one has charged Archbishop Cordileone with failing to live up to the Dallas Charter. The complainants who took out the full-page ad charge that he has fostered “an atmosphere of division and intolerance.” This is a grave charge indeed, but it is important, actually vital, to distinguish such a charge from the charge of violating the Dallas Charter and failing to protect children. The stain of clergy sex abuse is unique in the life of the Church in recent years. No issue has done more to wound the Church and compromise the bishops’ spiritual authority. But, if tomorrow, every bishop really did live out the promises of the Dallas Charter, and most do, there would still be bishops who are not up to the job. What is to be done about such cases?
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