The response from victims’ advocacy groups was predictably critical. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called the Vatican letter “backsliding” and “a green light” for predator priests. But Bishop Gregory saw the Vatican’s letter as a yellow light signaling the American church to proceed with caution. The canon law of the Catholic Church is the oldest legal system in the world, and many of its norms, which the bishops’ plan ignores, provide due process and appeals rights for priests against tyrannical prelates. Even so, said Bishop Gregory, the plan would remain in effect until a joint committee of eight bishops from the United States and the Vatican can agree on a revised text. Once that is achieved–the target date is Nov. 11–the American bishops will have a policy that binds all of them to a uniform procedure for dealing with priests accused of molesting minors.
From the moment it was formulated, the bishops’ policy has been sharply criticized by canon lawyers and priests’ groups within the American church. For one thing, it requires bishops to immediately remove priests from the ministry (though not the priesthood) without first determining the credibility of the accusations against them. For another, it advocates “zero tolerance” even for one-time offenders who may have repented, reformed and led a model life. Nor does it specify what is appropriate and inappropriate physical contact. What concerns most priests is that the policy, as it now stands, destroys the father-son relationship between them and their bishops. Fathers do not automatically throw their sons out of the house when they are accused of wrong-doing. Neither do they shield their sons from the law when found guilty. Above all, they do not put the honor of caste or church above the truth on the pretext of avoiding scandal. Since the current crisis arose, some bishops have done all three.
Meanwhile the Vatican’s Congregation for Education is preparing a document that would ban the ordination of homosexuals. “You don’t hire an alcoholic to be your bartender,” argues one theologian involved. But the ban is unlikely to be applied retroactively: in that case, the Vatican would lose some of its own cardinals and bishops.
