If I were doing seminary formation right now, I’d probably organize a movie night and have them watch “The Truman Show,” the 1998 Jim Carrey film about a man who’s the star of a 24/7 reality show in which the whole world can see and hear everything he does, only he doesn’t know it. Basically, every single priest today is the pastor of Seahaven, the fictional town in the film, where someone is always watching.

One of the unintended consequences of the new delicts is that almost any sexual activity between priest and adult parishioner is now a canonical crime. It seems impossible for an abuse of office not to be involved. For priests, sexual activity that involves “abuse of office” or “abuse of power” is now treated like the sexual abuse of a minor.

The judge cited inconsistencies about the timing of the incidents, questions about why the accuser waited so long to come forward. She also cited testimony by a forensic psychiatrist that the accuser’s mental health issues, including obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia nervosa, would make her prone to suggestion, memory problems, misinterpreting events and confabulation, or making up things that are untrue and believing they are true.

I am not sure what the investigators at The Pillar believe. I feel comfortably sure that before they embarked on their “investigation,” they must not have thought about the Code of Canon Law, which states, “No one is permitted to harm illegitimately the good reputation which a person possesses nor to injure the right of any person to protect his or her own privacy.”

The technology is so precise that it can provide the names and addresses of the targeted clergy and also tell what other app users he might spend time with and where their meetings take place. CNA was offered specific names of high-profile Catholic personalities as “proof” that the data had been gathered and could prove scandalous.

1. Liturgical books issued by Paul VI and John Paul II after the Second Vatican Council are “the unique expression of the lex orandi [the law of what is prayed] of the Roman Rite.” 2. It is a bishop’s “exclusive competence” to authorize the use of the 1962 Roman Missal in his diocese. 3. It instructs bishops to determine that groups do not deny the validity of Vatican II and the magisterium.

Ohryn wants to depose the seven people who were on that review board 15 years ago. The review board investigates complaints against clergy members. “They are the best individuals that could tell us exactly what the church knew and when . . ." He said.

“Given the ease of downloading and using a variety of apps to violate the sixth commandment, it would seem that crafting specific norms regarding the use of social media, in general, and specifically the use of social media apps the main purpose of which is to violate the sixth commandment,” Fr. John Paul Kimes, JCD.

There have been times in the Church’s history where the relationship between the clergy and the laity has become totally unbalanced. We need to recognize that to a significant degree the Church’s problems – abuse and other scandals – are a consequence of that imbalance and that it is “our” problem as a church, not simply a problem for the clergy to solve - an attitude which embeds clericalist attitudes even further.

The Bishop is now threatening to take away Father's pension, unless he agrees to be monitored under a new diocese program for priests with substantiated abuse claims against them. “I won’t consent to being monitored because I’m not guilty,” Father said. “I’m not a predator, and I absolutely refuse to accept that label.”