As I understand it, the grossly underreported aspect of this story is that the last time the Irish bishops tried to agree on meaningful rules, the Vatican said no way—such rules are in clear violation of Canon Law, which trumps all temporal law including international human rights laws.
Canon law STILL clearly says that the goal of preserving the Catholic Church’s public image and authority trumps such minor earthly concerns as actually stopping child abuse. If doing something about a problem would expose the problem and cause a scandal that would undermine Church authority, you’re still not supposed to do it.
Note that the new “rules” that the Bishop agreed to are no such thing. They are “best practices” guidelines, with actual decision-making left up to bishops.
The upshot of that is that the Bishops can use their discretion, and by Canon Law still “legally” must use their discretion precisely to avoid major scandals if possibel, even when that violates national and international laws.
The Vatican has quite clearly told the Bishops that they cannot make rules that really change that principle.
The Vatican issues various public pronouncements for the gullible, about how very sorry they are and mistakes were made and they’re making sure it won’t happen again, and so on, while clearly warning Bishops that nothing basic can change, or else.
The Church is trying to weather this storm, giving a public appearance of reform, without actually reforming itself.
LOL, I suspect a smartarse lead writer on staff there!
(US lede)
Anyone get a screenshot of that? Would make an epic demotivational poster.
Cached version with original title is at
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:tp7o6kJ7dKgJ:www.sbpost.ie/news/ireland/bishops-agree-sex-abuse-rules-55509.html
As I understand it, the grossly underreported aspect of this story is that the last time the Irish bishops tried to agree on meaningful rules, the Vatican said no way—such rules are in clear violation of Canon Law, which trumps all temporal law including international human rights laws.
Canon law STILL clearly says that the goal of preserving the Catholic Church’s public image and authority trumps such minor earthly concerns as actually stopping child abuse. If doing something about a problem would expose the problem and cause a scandal that would undermine Church authority, you’re still not supposed to do it.
Note that the new “rules” that the Bishop agreed to are no such thing. They are “best practices” guidelines, with actual decision-making left up to bishops.
The upshot of that is that the Bishops can use their discretion, and by Canon Law still “legally” must use their discretion precisely to avoid major scandals if possibel, even when that violates national and international laws.
The Vatican has quite clearly told the Bishops that they cannot make rules that really change that principle.
The Vatican issues various public pronouncements for the gullible, about how very sorry they are and mistakes were made and they’re making sure it won’t happen again, and so on, while clearly warning Bishops that nothing basic can change, or else.
The Church is trying to weather this storm, giving a public appearance of reform, without actually reforming itself.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150158637749253&set=o.125916327940&theater
using the screenshot with the original title…