The sexual abuse scandal presently laying waste to the confidence and credibility of the Catholic Church and its leadership has been the source of so many ills that are infecting the Body of Christ at present.
One such malady that has begun to show its symptoms is the division that has erupted among the Bishops themselves on so many levels.
The once-solid cohesiveness of the Episcopacy is eroding before our very eyes.
Cardinals are snipping at Cardinals. Bishops are casting doubts upon actions of their confreres.
When, in an earlier time, Bishops would have been disposed to support and defend one another, now many are choosing to remain silent in their defense of a brother-Bishop for fear of being embarrassed should that Bishop be accused and proven to have failed in some fashion.
This disunity and in-fighting is beneath the dignity of the Episcopal Office itself and is damaging to the confidence the Catholic faithful should rightly place in their shepherds.
If the upcoming General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in November devolves into a public display of such divisions, the American Church itself will suffer the ignominy of shame and disgrace.
The Successors of the Apostles need to speak clearly and with one voice. They possess the fullness of the Priesthood by virtue of their Episcopal Ordination and are not mid-level managers of a corporate Church. They need to gather and unanimously agree to certain principles which will govern how the Church should respond to the present crisis maturely and honestly.
Any such statement of principles should include an absolute commitment to have an independent investigative body (I suggest secular investigators and career prosecutors) determine the probative evidence of any claim of abuse, complicity or cover up by any Cleric, be he Cardinal, Bishop, Pastor, Associate Pastor, Transitional or Permanent Deacon.
All the Bishops should unanimously agree that they themselves will report any allegation of sexual abuse of a minor immediately to law enforcement authorities and offer as much cooperation as possible in the investigate to either exhonorate the Cleric or prove him guilty.
Finally, if the evidence warrants, the Bishops should unanimously agree that such a Cleric be reduced to the lay state and, if the crime is so contrary to the moral law, excommunicated from the communion of the Church.
The unity of the Bishops on these three principles (and a host of others) should be unquestioned and uncontested.
Thus far, no one knows where the Bishops as a body stand.
That is damaging and dangerous to the security of the Catholic faith and the dignity of the Catholic faithful.
The Bishops need to get their collective house in order quickly.
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