"The law is [that] all are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The practical situation, though, is that when someone brings forward an allegation and they appear credible, the effective presumption changes to, 'Why would the person lie?' So the priest is almost in a situation in which he has to prove his innocence, which is difficult." Flummerfelt said.
There must be a willingness to exclude anyone who does not fulfill objective criteria of maturity, self-possession, self-control, self-discipline and goodwill toward all others; A "pastoral heart" full of good intentions is not enough; there must be a demonstrated capacity to behave in every circumstance as a good pastor and to function as a mature, psychosexually healthy person.
Most of the sexual abuse took place between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s. Media reports, however, continue to poison the public mind, having the public believe it is still ongoing. What they are reporting, in almost every instance, are past cases of abuse.
A Catholic archbishop has seemingly proposed laicizing priests whose guilt has not been decisively established. The archbishop may be motivated by economic interests. Priests who have been removed from ministry remain, canonically, the responsibility of their dioceses. Every priest already knows he can be removed from ministry on the basis of a mere phone call claiming that some incident occurred decades ago.