More on the Continuing Sex Abuse Crisis

"American hierarchy seals its fate" is the title of an article in the current National Catholic Reporter by A.W. Richard Sipe, a former priest who has served as a consultant or expert witness in more than 200 cases of clergy sexual abuse. Commenting of the recent bankruptcy filing of the Portland archdiocese, and threats of similar filings by other diocese's, Sipe says "The American hierarchy is in an unenviable bind. Their conundrum rests in the documents at question in almost every case under invesigation. Release of documents will show the corruption of the past. Continued concealment proves the corruption of the present administrations. Any way they move, the the sexual and perhaps financial corruption within the heart of the American Catholic church is on the brink of revelation." Click on the title link above to read the entire article.

The same issue of NCR has a letter to the editor which addresses the same question I had, namely, how can the Portland archdiocese claim that local churches belong to the parishes, while the Boston archdiocese can close over 60 parishes, against the will of the parishioners?

Parish ownership question

The archbishop of Boston, a “corporation sole,” is closing 20 percent of the parishes in the diocese without the assent of parishioners because all property is held by the archbishop. In Portland, Ore., the archbishop, also a “corporation sole,” declares bankruptcy and states, “Under canon law, parish assets belong to the parish. I have no authority to seize parish property.”

There obviously are substantially different views of one fact. Should I refer to the archbishops as cafeteria Catholics?

CHRIS O’BRIEN
Newton, Mass.

Also in that issue of NCR, a paragraph from Tom Roberts' Editors Note shows that the corruption appears to go all the way to the top:

One hesitates to keep getting caught up in the muck of the clergy sex abuse crisis for fear that it becomes the only perspective through which the church is viewed. That said, each month seems to bring some new chapter and yet another indication from church leaders of why it won’t go away. Most recently it is the scandal in Austria (see John Allen’s story on Page 11) and the comments of Bishop Kurt Krenn that what was photographed at his seminary amounted to nothing more than a “schoolboy prank.”

Closer to home, the Times Leader newspaper, which covers Scranton, Pa., quoted former Scranton Bishop James Timlin in a testy exchange with the lawyer of an alleged sex abuse victim. Referring to the guidelines for dealing with clergy sex abuse promulgated by the U.S. bishops in 2002, Timlin said under oath in a deposition last October, “I know there are some bishops in the country who refuse to have anything to do with it and they have permission from Rome to do this.” The full story can be found on the paper’s Web site.

The bankruptcy in Portland is symbolic of more than fiscal distress.

Finally, I ran across this interesting item on BeliefNet:
America's Worst Bishops - Which bishops have made the worst decisions about abusive priests?