UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism
Jerry Slevin
Is there one criminal law for childless bishops and another for lesser Catholic Church officials and non-clerics who endanger or harm innocent children? Two different standards appear to be the case so far.
An Australian Archbishop pleads not guilty to criminally concealing a predatory priest’s child abuse. A Belgian Archbishop is judicially determined to have behaved similarly with a predatory priest he supervised. He may retire. A KC USA bishop, in effect, pleads guilty to similar charges and resigns after four years.
A defrocked 66 year old Polish Archbishop, who has been found, it appears, by the Vatican to have sexually abused minors in the Dominican Republic, may die of old age in a comfortable Vatican residence before the Vatican even begins his secretive trial.
Why are any of these bishop misdeeds tried in biased church courts? Why are bishops not being convicted and imprisoned for misdeeds that lesser officials and ordinary citizens are imprisoned for? How can an estimated hundreds of thousands of children worldwide been abused by priests, yet no bishop is really being held accountable to the full extent of the law?
In Philadelphia, where Pope Francis will soon honor the local Catholic hierarchy with a visit, Msgr. William Lynn, who had overseen more than 800 priests as former top priest personnel aide for a dozen years to the Philly Archdiocese’s Cardinals Justin Rigali and Anthony Bevilacqua and the first Catholic Church non-bishop senior official convicted in the clergy sex-abuse scandal, was recently order returned to prison, following a higher court ruling, by Teresa Sarmina, a judge educated at the Jesuit’s Georgetown Law and at Notre Dame’s St. Mary’s. “Well, I think things are back where they were when I sentenced Msgr. Lynn,” Sarmina said. “The same reasons I stated then exist.” “Somebody call for a sheriff,” the judge added, before leaving the bench. She had lectured Lynn on his failure to stand up to his cardinal bosses, who got off with impunity and Vatican honors, as did shamed Boston Cardinal Bernard Law before them.
Too bad no one earlier called the sheriff on Lynn’s cardinal bosses. Both cardinals managed to avoid prosecution for their aide’s misdeeds done apparently on their behalf. Bevilacqua died soon after giving a two day video deposition (that is still being kept secret, it appears) in the Lynn criminal case, and Rigali left town in a hurry, by “retiring” after Lynn’s indictment. He may now be seen in good form with Pope Francis attending Vatican ceremonies along with his former pal, the infamous Cardinal Law. The pope likely knew Bevilacqua from their Vatican committee work and appears to be personally acquainted with Rigali. Apparently failing to supervise priest predators of children is not an impediment to being honored at the Vatican.
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