AN AFFRONT TO NATURAL JUSTICE AND COMMON DECENCY

The laicization of Bishops, by punitive dismissal or voluntarily, is historically very rare.

Some examples in recent times, however, include both Bishop Emmanuel Milingo of Zambia in 2009 and Bishop Raymond Lahey of Canada in 2012.

Józef Wesołowski, a Polish Archbishop who had been a Papal Nuncio was dismissed from the clerical state in 2014 on grounds of sexual abuse of minors.The Vatican had made criminal charges against Archbishop Wesołowski related to his abuse of minors and was going to try him. However, in July 2015 the trial was postponed due to the Archbishop’s ill health,  He died in August of 2015 before a trial could be conducted.

In an example of a Bishop voluntarily requesting laicization, the Bishop of San Pedro, Fernando Lugo, requested laicization in Paraguay in 2005 to allow him to run for President of the country.  The Holy See at first refused, going so far as to suspend him as Bishop when he ran for office anyway, but eventually granted him lay status in 2008 after he was elected.

Most recently, two very public scandals involving Bishops have rocked the Church.

In America, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was accused of the sexual abuse of a minor almost a half century ago when he was a Priest in New York.  A Review Board investigated the allegation and found it to be “credible and substantiated".  

The Cardinal has stated he has no recollection of the abuse but has accepted the Review Board's findings.

In response, the Holy See prohibited the Cardinal from any exercise of public ministry.  However, he remains Archbishop emeritus of Washington, DC and a Cleric of the Church.

In Australia,  Archbishop Philip Wilson's has been convicted of the criminal concealment of child sex abuse and has been sentenced to a twelve month detention under “house arrest".  

The Archbishop is appealing the guilty verdict.  He is the most senior Catholic Bishop in the world to be convicted by a secular court of covering-up child sex abuse crimes.

The Holy See has taken no action against Archbishop Wilson who remains in his Episcopal assignment as Archbishop of Adelaide.

Recently, the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbuall, publicly called upon Pope Francis to remove Archbishop Wilson from office.

That call was echoed by the National Council of Priests of Australia (NCP)  which endorsed the appeals for Archbishop Philip Wilson to resign, and have called on the Pope to intervene.

The NPC says Archbishop Philip Wilson's position has been "compromised" since his conviction.  In a public statement to Australian media, the organization of Priests insisted:  “The welfare of the People of God of the Archdiocese of Adelaide must take precedence over the desire of an individual to remain in office.”

Clerics (Bishops, Priests and Deacons) who commit sexual abuse are charged under a Canon of Church Law (c. 1395 §2) which criminalizes those offenses against the sixth commandment which are committed by force or threats or publicly or with a minor below the age of 16.

However, another Canon of Church Law may have equal application.  Canon 1399 covers the situation in which the criminal “goes against a divine or ecclesiastical law with harm or danger of grave scandal.”

It speaks volumes that, when an accusation of the sexual abuse of a minor is made against a Priest or when a Priest is actually charged with a criminal offense, he is automatically removed from his assignment and prohibited from any public exercise of his ministry.

Yet, Archbishop Wilson has remained in office as Archbishop of Adelaide for the duration of his trial. 

Following the sentencing, ArchbishopWilson said he would not quit his post, despite the growing calls.

"I intend to lodge an appeal against my conviction to the District Court of New South Wales," he said in a statement.  "I am conscious of calls for me to resign and have taken them very seriously. However, at this time, I am entitled to exercise my legal rights and to follow the due process of law.  Since that process is not yet complete, I do not intend to resign at this time."

The NCP stated: "For the good of the Church in Australia and for the benefit of the People of God in the Archdiocese of Adelaide, we request that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, remove Archbishop Philip Wilson from his See, the Diocese of Adelaide."

While Archbishop Wilson’s appeal works its way through the Australian court process, Port Pirie Bishop Greg O'Kelly was appointed by Pope Francis as Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Adelaide last month, taking over responsibilities formerly in the hands of Archbishop Wilson.

The inequity in the way the Church responds to Priests who have been alleged to have been guilty of child sex abuse and the way the Holy See has responded to the scandals involving Cardinal McCarrick and Archbishop Wilson is an affront to natural justice and is rightfully condemned by both Priests and laity alike.

The time has come and is, in fact, long overdue for the Supreme Authority of the Church to take both disciplinary and punitive action against those Bishops who have directly by their own criminal acts or by engaging in a conspiracy of silence to be removed from the office and, given the grave damage done to the Church by their scandalous behavior, be laicized and removed from the clerical state. 

We shall see if Pope Francis is capable of the distasteful duty which has been laid at his feet in these appalling cases of abuse and cover up.