A report last Sunday in the New York Times filed by Vatican-watcher Rachel Donadio revealed to the world that on Friday evening of Easter week Pope Benedict watched a movie. That's right. Imagine! But wait! There's more! Guess which movie! A film entitled "Under the Roman Sky"! It's a film that portrays Pope Pius XII as a protector of Italy's Jews! Oh, the horror, the horror! But wait, wait, wait! It gets worse! Benedict praised the movie! Yes, he did! He actually called it "useful and stimulating". Well, after that, what need have we of witnesses?
But just in case you might feel the need, the Times will do its best to oblige. As a matter of fact, Johnny-on-the-spot, it does so , right there in that same report! Under an eye-catching caption (spelled out in extra-large, bold black type): "FROM POPE, PRAISE FOR A PREDECESSOR ALSO UNDER SCRUTINY", Ms. Donadio's report weighs in: "The screening ... comes as the Vatican continues to respond to criticism that it did not act SWIFTLY to REMOVE priests who were pedophiles from its ranks."
May I offer a comment . Ms. Donadio seems to be laboring under the assumption that the INITIAL responsibility for "removing" priests accused of pedophiliac acts (or serious sins of any kind) rests with the Vatican. Given that assumption, a false assumption, it would follow that any delay in removing from access to potential victims a priest accused credibly of sexual abuse would constitute dereliction of duty on the part of the Vatican, and in particular on the part of Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, who, as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, possessed ultimate jurisdiction prior to 2001 over cases involving profanation of the Sacrament of Confession, and from 2001 forward, at the command of Pope John Paul, ultimate jurisdiction over cases involving clerical sexual abuse of any kind.
Ms. Donadio, there's a problem here. Under canon law the responsibility for suspending predatory priests from the public exercise of ministry, or at the very least for removing them from assignments providing access to victims, rests in the FIRST instance NOT with "the Vatican " but WITH THE LOCAL BISHOP.
What the Times is doing here-and has consistently been doing- is to assign to the higher authority the guilt for negligence on the part of the lower. Thus guilt for the negligence shown by LOCAL bishops as in the Milwaukee case is imputed to the Vatican. Such a transfer of guilt is helpful to those who are eager to impair the credibility of the Church by damaging or even destroying the credibility of Pope Benedict.
Standing in the way of such transfer of guilt from a lower authority to one that is higher is the fact that under the norms that govern the Catholic Church, a.ka. canon law, in addressing the evil of "criminous clerks" (to use a once famous phrase from the history of England), the proper modus agenda unfolds in a sequence of TWO quite distinct and contrasting procedures.
Procedure number one callsfor judgment by the LOCAL bishop, issuing IDEALLY in SWIFT remedial action, that is to say in IMMEDIATE separation of the credibly accused from his putative victims, pending further investigation. This separation can be of indeterminate length.
Procedure number TWO is a SLOWER and much more PAINSTAKING procedure, involving careful investigation of the charges with an eye to fairness and the pursuit of the truth and frequently requiring an ecclesiastical trial conducted under strict rules, a trial that can result in laicization if the accused is found guilty. Laicization is the reduction of a priest to the status of a layman inasmuch as, without prejudice to the character indelibly imprinted on his soul at the moment of ordination, he is solemnly forbidden for the rest of his life to discharge priestly functions in public or even in private, except for that rare emergency when the salvation of an immortal soul is at stake.
For procedure number ONE "the ball is in the court" of the LOCAL BISHOP. He has the initial responsibility to investigate and to act. For procedure number TWO the VATICAN takes over the command---and the responsibility. Speed is the desirable characteristic of procedure number one. But in procedure number two, so that justice may be served, careful concern for the rights of all (including the accused) trumps the need for speed.
Thus to criticize THE VATICAN for failing "to act SWIFTLY to REMOVE priests who were pedophiles from its ranks" is to ignore the contrasting characteristics of procedure number one and the subsequent procedure. In his presiding over procedure number two Cardinal Ratzinger followed the dictates of a sound conscience in refusing to endorse a "rush to judgment." At that stage of the proceedings a cautious and careful concern for justice even to the prejudice of speed was what his duty required.
But even a columnist for the New York Times can give evidence of possessing a conscience. Such a colunniist is Ron Douthat, together with David Brooks one of the two professedly conservative columnists allowed space in that paper. Mr. Douthat has come on the editorial page of the Times to Pope Benedict's defense.
May I offer for your reading, in defense of a viciously maligned Pope Benedict, no less than three recent and very important articles that appeared in the secular press: First Ross Douthat's column from the Times; then an essay from Newsweek by George Weigel; and finally a report from Stacy Meichtry in the Wall Street Journal.
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