Father Greg Reynolds of Melbourne, Australia publically advocated for the ordination of women and was excommunicated by Pope Francis.
Father Carlos Urrutigoity was accused of molesting boys in Shohola and Moscow, PA, and was transferred to a parish in Paraguay – where he now holds the number 2 position in his diocese.
Neither of these cases surprises me, nor did the testimony of the Vatican’s U.N. ambassador to the U.N.’s Convention Against Torture in Geneva yesterday. When pressed about the Catholic Church’s responsibility in cases of priests sexually abusing children, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi responded strongly, “It should be stressed, particularly in light of much confusion, that the Holy See has no jurisdiction over every member of the Catholic Church.”
Tomasi continued “The Holy See wishes to reiterate that the persons who live in a particular country are under the jurisdiction of the legitimate authorities of that country and are thus subject to the domestic law and the consequences contained therein. State authorities are obligated to protect, and when necessary, prosecute persons under their jurisdiction.”
Tomasi might have well told the U.N. Committee, “It’s not our problem.”
The difficulty here is in understanding how a church insists on total jurisdiction over all doctrinal issues, but then claims none when the shepherds of the faith sexually abuse children?
There has been much attention paid to Pope Francis since his ordination. He has publically apologized to the victims of sexual abuse, and established a Vatican committee to look into the problem of sexual abuse by priests. But apologies do little to help victims or prevent further abuse, and the Vatican Committee on Abuse has done nothing to date.
Which is why Tomasi’s testiomony before the U.N. came as no surprise. Since the ordination of Pope Francis the Vatican has waged an all out PR war in trying to convince the world they want to fight sexual abuse. In reality they have done very little, and Archbishop Tomasi put the world on notice yesterday that it is back to business as usual.
If you are in the employ of the Catholic Church and speak out in support of gay marriage, the ordination of women, or birth control you will lose your job.
If you rape a child, you can put in for a transfer.