Why Pope Benedict Must Resign by Daniel Maguire, Professor of Moral Theology at Marquette University

[Better Believe It]

Why Pope Benedict Must Resign
By Daniel C. Maguire
March 28, 2010

Daniel C. Maguire is a Professor of Moral Theology at Marquette University, a Catholic, Jesuit institution in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Milwaukee has now replaced Boston and other competing centers as the epicenter of priest sexual crimes against children.

Nothing matches what happened in my city of Milwaukee, with over 200 deaf boys repeatedly molested and raped by Rev. Lawrence Murphy, a priest who was never punished and who was buried, after a lifetime of child rape, with full priestly honors.

Pope Benedict XVI now faces a major hypocrisy test. He has been accepting resignations from bishops around the world who failed to take action against priest rapists. It is now no longer in dispute that he himself is guilty of the same criminal negligence in the Milwaukee case and in Germany when he was archbishop.

The pope can only serve the church by resigning. If he were in charge of some secular institution, he would be forced to resign and be subject to criminal prosecution. He has no moral right to hide behind Vatican walls.

What makes this a perfect storm is the list of rogue actors in this crime spree. It involves the current pope, a Vatican cardinal, two members of the Papal Apostolic Delegature, three Milwaukee archbishops, and – something that is usually overlooked in press accounts of these abuse cases – the collusion of the local police and the District Attorney.

However, this time at least, the press did its job. The Milwaukee Journal examined the case, even as the church hierarchy did not, nor did the local D.A. These failures – and the apparent church/state cover-up – should be investigated by the current District Attorney in Milwaukee.

It’s also now clear that this is not a localized problem. It is a global Catholic Church pandemic.

Yet, the Vatican is still engaged in cover-ups of these crimes by attacking the press, trying to kill the messenger who brings the bad but true news.

The reason offered by bishops for not reporting these horrors publicly was that it would have caused “scandal.” However, scandal in that case is a fraudulent misnomer. It is code for “public relations disaster.” Hierarchical efforts to claim the priest criminals were only a few bad apples – and the failure to report the crimes to law enforcement – is the scandal.

The concern was for the church’s image, not for the victims, nor for the violations of law.

The pope and the bishops involved worldwide in these criminal cases are, ironically, the same people who say that no woman can be ordained or hold a position of ecclesiastical power. Have these men not left us with the conclusion that it’s time for the women to take over?

Ironically also, these same men say that two gay adults who love one another and seek to commit themselves to one another in a permanent exclusive marriage may not do so. In the view of the Catholic hierarchy, that would be a “scandal.”

The pope and the bishops are also the ones who insist that all who serve as priests must be celibate. All these stories of sexual abuse prove that enforced celibacy is a failed discipline.

A priesthood based on a requirement never to fall in love or have the enriching experience of parenthood is unrealistic and an invitation to pathology. There is a reason why rabbis, ministers and imams -- who are allowed to marry -- are not filling the press with a comparable parade of horrors.

Celibacy is not a bona fide occupational qualification for priesthood or ministry. Of course, enforced celibacy is not the only factor behind these terrible crimes but that it is a factor is beyond any doubt.

An Italian editor with whom I worked was on a train in Italy and was joined in the dining room by a Monsignor from the Vatican. The editor found the Monsignor very urbane, knowledgeable and sophisticated. He felt prompted to broach some delicate issues of church reform.

He asked: “The Church would be greatly helped if there were reform on issues such as birth control and priestly celibacy.”

The mood changed. The Monsignor stiffened and blurted out: “We may die but we will not change!” The Monsignor might have uttered an all too accurate prophecy.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/032810e.html

-I believe articles published in Consortium News are not copyrighted.-

[MichiganVote]

1. Silly rabbit. Popes don't resign, they "go with God". White smoke coming soon.

[pscot]

2. This isn't the 16TH century.

Has a pope ever resigned? We aren't talking about the governor of Alaska here.

[LeftyMom]

3. Not for centuries.

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. Yes, I believe this explains it nicely. But he won't resign.

The denial and cover-up are institutionalized and instinctual after hundreds of years, and so is the hypocrisy. Every day the true priorities of this corrupt hierarchy are exposed for all to see -- and they refuse to see them. They take cover under platitudes, tradition, and unthinking "loyalty." How can they think that Christ, their avowed mentor, would approve of much of what they have built and do? Answer: they don't think, they rationalize. Vatican II gave an infusion of hope for change in the right directions, but not under the current conservative rulers of the Church.

[IndianaGreen]

5. The Vatican is now blaming the 'Jewish press' for its PR troubles

The NY Times is their target. Their crime? Publishing court documents that show that before he became Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger was up to his eyebrows in covering up child abuse.

[Hekate]

7. The RCC is looking everywhere but in the mirror. They've blamed children. Now the Jews...

In blaming the Jews, the Vatican is reaching back into the most unsavory parts of its long history.

Hekate

[eridani]

6. Soon to be ex-professor of theology n/t

[louis c]

8. I hope they don't lock this thread, too

[DaveinJapan]

9. What thread topics were locked? nt

[louis c]

11. This One

Link;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8083435

[louis c]

14. This one

Link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8083573

[louis c]

12. and this one

Link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8083791

[Golden Raisin]

10. Don't hold your breath.

[tblue37]

13. A main reason for the priestly celibacy rule was to ensure that priests had no

legitimate children to pass their property to when they died. Thus, their poperty went to the Church, helping to enrich it (and, of course, empower it) over the centuries.

[Better Believe It]

15. I'm a former Catholic. I don't think I'll be rejoining anytime soon.

[amborin]

16. ny times article on pope's anti-gay, anti-women acts:

"A watershed came last October, amid a crisis over gay rights and women’s rights in the Anglican Communion, when the pope announced that a special section of the Catholic Church would be established to allow former Anglicans to convert to Catholicism while keeping some of their traditions and services, and even being led by former Anglican bishops, some of them married.

Archbishop Williams said then that he was stunned by the initiative, which he said he had heard about only two weeks before it was announced by the Vatican. Reports in British newspapers said that he telephoned the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop Vincent Nichols, in the middle of the night to protest.

Defending his move, Pope Benedict said he was creating the new enclave for Anglican converts in response to pleas from traditionalist Anglicans. Many of them had declared themselves unwilling to continue in a church that has sanctioned the ordination of women as bishops and hovered on the brink of a schism over the decision of the Episcopal Church in the United States to ordain gay and lesbian bishops.

Archbishop Williams has worked relentlessly to hold the Anglican Communion together, pleading unsuccessfully, at least so far, with Episcopal leaders to suspend the ordination of gay and lesbian priests, and asking traditionalist Anglican bishops, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America, to be patient while an accommodation on the issue is worked out.

Shortly after the pope’s announcement in October, Dr. Williams flew to Rome for a brief meeting with the pope that was described as “cordial,” and which was said to have renewed their “shared will” to achieve closer ties.

But Anglican officials have said privately that Archbishop Williams regarded the pope’s initiative as undermining his efforts to prevent a breakup of the Anglican Communion, and as an opportunistic move aimed at taking advantage of Anglican woes.

The new falling out over the pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church comes as Britain prepares for a visit by Benedict in September, his first as pope, when he is expected to press his criticism of a new equality law being moved through Parliament by the governing Labour Party that Catholics fear will have the effect of criminalizing any moves by Catholic-run institutions to deny employment to gays and lesbians, or otherwise discriminate against them.

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/world/europe/04church.html?pagewanted=2&ref=todayspaper

[Better Believe It]

17. Thanks for the post and link.

[troubledamerican]

18. Pope Nixon