Lay Catholics call on five bishops to resign

Michael Paulson of The Boston Globe has the story:

Voice of the Faithful, the Newton-based [MA] organization formed in the wake of the abuse crisis to push for change in the Catholic Church, is calling for the resignations of Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, Bishop William F. Murphy of Long Island, Bishop John B. McCormack of New Hampshire, and Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati. The group is also calling on Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the former archbishop of Boston, to give up his positions in Rome, where he oversees a basilica and serves on several Vatican committees.

The group's explanation:

"We ask those authorities that failed to protect the well-being of our children by knowingly and secretly transferring predator priests from parish to parish without informing the laity of the reasons for such transfers to resign their current office before June 30, 2009. In our view, any secret transfer constitutes prima facie evidence that, regardless of the professional advice or counsel they may have received, such bishops and other religious authorities, by acting in secret, put the interests of the institutional church before the safety of its people and their children. In addition to requesting all such resignations, we call on these bishops to acknowledge personally and publicly their involvement in the sexual abuse crisis, and to ask for forgiveness from the survivors and their families who were so badly wounded by their decisions."
Posted by Jim Naughton on January 15, 2009 6:47 PM | |
Comments (2)

Wait, Pope Benedict, would this be a case of Selective Pontificating?

Posted by Leonardo Ricardo [TypeKey Profile Page] | January 15, 2009 11:02 PM

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