Is Cardinal Rigali finally headed for retirement? Multiple sources have reported that the Holy See could name a replacement as early as tomorrow or next week. Who will it be? This article in the National Catholic Reporter covers four possibilities. What we do know is that this appointment is long overdue. Philadelphia’s faithful have been characterized as docile. I’d say our leadership has crushed our souls and many felt there was/is no recourse. With the possibility of someone actually listening, perhaps more will speak out. What do you think?
“Philadelphia: Is Help Coming?” by Michael Sean Winters, National Catholic Reporter, July 14th, 2011
Regardless, no one should let Rigali off the hook until he is in prison.
I agree! Unfortunately, his new surroundings probably won’t have bars on his windows, but chandeliers and gold floors throughout his new palace in Rome — as this is more than likely his promotion for a “cover-up” well done.
As I wrote on the NCR blog:
This is an excellent article, and it points up three deficits in the RCC
1. Just prosecution in civil courts for those who molest children and vulnerable adults as well as prosecution for those who disregard the safety of children and vulnerable adults.
2. Input from the Faithful on which person should be their archbishop.
3. Input from the clergy on which person should be their archbishop.
Until and unless these things happen, there is no justice for the survivors; there is no change in the RCC.
In China, the secular government names the Catholic bishops &, generally, Rome accepts them, albeit not always. This is not unusual, as is taught in any good church history course. In the U.S., our 1st bishop, John Carroll, was elected by the resident clergy, & Bishop Carroll recommended that method when it came time to select his successor. There is no doctrinal basis for the present means of choosing our bishops, which is totally lacking in both transparency & accountability, the criteria for any form of effective governance in a population as educated as ours. So, my question is, why do we stand for it. Tell Pope Benedict XVI, respectfully, that unless you have a say of some sort, you will not support the AD of Philadelphia or your local parish (unfortunately, the latter is necessary to make the former effective) until you have a reasonable say in who will govern each.
forme
While I think your reference to the election of Bishop Carroll is pertinent to the discussion, I believe your reference to the Chinese government is off base. Within China there are 2 Catholic churches, the state controlled Patriotic Catholic Church, whose bishops are appointed by the communist central government and the RCC which is currently underground. Many of the bishops within China who still consider themselves to be RC have been placed under house arrest and some, including the late Cardinal Kung, have spent years in labor camps as a direct result of their loyalty to the RCC. While I am no fan of the RCC’s current system of appointing bishops, I am even less a fan of a government that uses its authority to imprison clerics who refuse to follow the party line. A little off topic to the original post but I just thought some clarification was needed here. This is a topic of special interest to me since my daughter was born in China and many Christians, including members of the RCC continue to be persecuted there.
I hope that most of your readers to this blog have read the article in the July issue of PHILADELPHIA, the magazine. That article tells it all very clearly;The Sexual abuse crisis in Philadelphia.
If Archbishop Chaput or Bishop Bill Lori are named to this Archdiocese, then any hope of reconcilliation or justice is over. Bishop Lori has stonewalled invgestigations in Bridgeport and I do believe that he has great ambition of the Red Hat.
One never knows really how Rome decides these appointments. Ususally the Apostolic Delegate has asignificant input. One can only hope that he has listened and heard the pain of the people of this Archdiocese and acted accordingly. If not, as usual, the decision will be made without any real consultation of the people. Very sad!!!
Your career is over, but you may be one of the dozen priests that gets into heaven. Good for you. You understood the first day of Catechism class. The other priests are failures for eternity.
Looks like things are firming up to be more than just rumors. Who will it be – who knows? Does it really matter?The only replacement that would really provide any type of healing is someone such as Archbishop Martin of Dublin who has come clean with admitting the abuse and more importantly the cover up and is working on healing and justice for the victims. I read where he was reading reports of the abusive priests in Ireland about one priest who abused a group of 8 year olds. Archbishop Martin went to a school to specifically visit children in the 8 year age group just to get a sense of a child at that age and the innocence that was taken from them. He is not running from the problems-he is facing them head on – and not quietly either.
http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/
And you can read dozens of articles this month about how the Vatican is ignoring Bishop Martin. Fool is constantly trying to force Christianity and compassion into the Catholic church.
Father George A. Stallings Jr
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-07-03/news/mn-2395_1_roman-catholic-church
http://www.tparents.org/library/unification/talks/stallings/stallings-030212.htm
This guy had a great Gospel Mass in the 70’s. Think he made himself an Archbishop in 1991, as usual, he was too outspoken for the RCC so they prevented him from public ministry. This guy would reform the church, but he isn’t Catholic anymore.
Cardinal Justin Rigali, head of the archdiocese of Philadelphia, appears about to resign, the National Catholic Reporter says.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/07/18/Report-Cardinal-Rigali-to-leave-post/UPI-66641310966048/#ixzz1SSSzg4Zj
Just a few more clicks for online advertisers and sell a few more papers. Tell me when he is gone and a suitable replacement is here. The rest is just BS. Rome may just keep him there until the clergy decides to rebel – can’t pick them off one by one if a large group of these people acted as one. I guess I just have an uninformed conscience.Conscience is an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment of the intellect that distinguishes right from wrong. Moral judgement may derive from values or norms( Rome’s values?) I guess moral judgement takes a back seat to canon law. What is the canon law judgement of priests raping kids in the confessional – what does that do for the santity of reconsilation? Need an Archbishop that can confront those issues. Not a finance expert or a lapdog but a shepherd, the staff he carries represents aa a person caring for his sheep, not a person protecting his own backside and using it a weapon to hurt victims.