The bishop testified he didn’t report the allegations to law enforcement because he didn’t feel he was required by law to do so, and instead kept the allegations secret out of concern for “scandal and the respect of the priesthood.” He also testified that the diocese kept records documenting sexual abuse allegations in secret files in a locked room that only he and other top church officials could access.
It is staggering to think that the living God, who gives the moral law to us and teaches us how to live, will readily welcome murderers, thieves, and prostitutes to his table, but he will not invite the self-righteous and those who refuse mercy to be with him. The disciples of the Lord Jesus are defined by mercy. We have received mercy and we are called to give it. There are no conditions and no exceptions. We are a people of the Prodigal Son. We are called to be a people of mercy.
Confession is the “sacrament of joy,” Pope Francis said. “The Lord enters our home, as he did that of Mary in Nazareth, and brings us unexpected amazement and joy.” The Pope also urged priests to always express God’s forgiveness in Confession, and never project an air of rigidity or harshness. “If a priest doesn’t possess this attitude with the proper sentiments in his heart,” he said, “then it would be better he not act as a confessor.”
"Welcoming is the measure of pastoral charity, which matures in the course of a priest’s formation, bearing rich fruits both for the penitent and for the confessor himself, who lives his fatherhood, like the father of the prodigal son, full of joy at the return of his son. If, while the penitent is speaking, you are already thinking about what to say, what to answer, then you are not listening to him or her, but to yourself. Listening is a form of love that makes the other person feel truly loved," said Pope Francis.
The archbishop said in a statement that the authorities investigated the allegations and prosecutors declined to file charges. He also said that church authorities also dismissed the case against the bishop after their investigation concluded the evidence did not support the allegation. The bishop “vigorously” denied the allegation and cooperated with both investigations.
If someone wants to pray over you, you’re allowed to say “no” or walk away. It is wrong and abusive for someone to just walk up to you at a church service or anywhere else, and put their hands on you, and start p¬raying in tongues. It’s wrong and abusive for them to start shouting prayer AT you when you don’t want it. If they start screaming at you and calling out your demons as you walk away, that’s incredibly abusive.
In one of the major changes, it brings the pope’s advisory commission on preventing sexual abuse into the Vatican’s powerful doctrine office which oversees the canonical investigations of abuse cases. Previously, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors existed as an ad hoc commission that reported to the pope but had no real institutional weight or power. Now the advisory commission is part of the newly named Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Parishioners recognize that the diocese is working to pay off claims from victims of sexual abuse. This is a right course of action. But to use the assets of the parishes that the parishioners themselves helped to put together must not be used to pay the victims. The parishioners did not commit the sexual abuse; others perpetrated this, not them.
For the Church to embrace more robustly and normatively the practices of restorative justice–including forgiveness–-to inculcate this as a habituated response to the crisis of clergy sexual abuse will require nothing less than a profound institutional examination of conscience. It will require a radical return to being a Church self-consciously aware of its call–not to a regime of litigation and monetary rewards–but to the ministry of reconciliation.
A Wichita priest who was accused of sexual exploitation of a child will return to public ministry after the district attorney said he could not file charges and the Diocesan Charter Review Board concluded that there was insufficient evidence and recommended that the priest return to ministry. However, SNAP is taking issue with Diocese decision stating, "we know that studies show false allegations of sexual abuse are extremely rare."
Have you heard of a case in which, after an accused priest has been cleared of abuse charges, he has received an apology from the bishop who suspended him, and a ringing endorsement of his character? I haven’t. We may never know how many priests have been falsely accused, suspended, and left by indifferent diocesan officials to fend for themselves. And if they do dare to challenge the false accusations, as this priest did, the (arch)diocese treats them as rebels. A loving father would not allow his sons to languish indefinitely in clerical limbo, their reputations in tatters, on the basis of unproven accusations.
SNAP's Clohessy said that the priest has been accused five times. The archdiocese, in a statement in response to the most recent lawsuit, said that Father was not assigned there at the time the alleged abuse took place, and that the other previous allegations were either retracted or shown to be false.
Imagine how you would feel if you were a priest nearly 70 years old and, out of the blue, you learn that you have been accused of sexual abuse some forty years ago, an act that you know you did not commit. Suddenly, you are removed from ministry and your name is placed on the archdiocesan website because a review board has judged that there is a “semblance of truth” to the accusation. Few know that “semblance of truth” means that it is not impossible that the act has taken place, though no one has provided a shred of evidence beyond the person’s accusation.
Criminals would not confess theirs sins to priests and ministers if they knew that what they confess would be reported to the police. Second, in practice very few perpetrators and victims confess sexual abuse incidents to priests and pastors, and when they do it they try to be vague on details, so that a hypothetical report by the minister would be of little use to the authorities. Third, mandatory report of information ministers have learned outside confession, which the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations do not oppose, is the real key to improve the protection of children.