A Tale of Two Bishops: Canonical Conumdrums

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. He is the fairly recently retired Archbishop of Washington, D.C. He may also be in some very hot water. Former Dominican Richard Sipe has written a public letter to Pope Benedict XVI detailing numerous sexual improprieties perpetrated by McCarrick over the years. I first heard about this on Relevant Radio, a Catholic radio network. The host said he knows McCarrick and is aware that there have always been questions about the numerous visits by seminarians to McCarrick's vacation home. My guess is that McCarrick knew that the allegations were coming and made sure to remain in the background during Pope Benedict's recent visit to the U.S. To see Sipe's statement, go to: http://www.richardsipe.com/Docs_and_Controversy/Statement-to-Pope.html

And what about Bishop Fernando Lugo of Paraguay? He was recently elected as president of the country. He has asked the Vatican to remove him from the state of being a bishop. This creates a canonical conumdrum. As a priest, he is forbidden to run for public office. The Vatican can laicize priests. However, while the Vatican can take away the authority of a bishop to serve as leader of a diocese, it cannot canonically remove him from the "state" of being a bishop. Even if the Vatican were to excommunicate Lugo, he would still be a bishop. He could still ordain priests.

It will be very interesting to see how the Vatican will handle these situations. Being that they will be addressed in the Vatican's timeline, don't expect anything right away.

Benedict XVI: Media Expert

Many experts claimed that it would be very difficult for Pope Benedict XVI to match Pope John Paul II's expertise in using the media. Given some questionable situations such as the remarks made during Pope Benedict's presentation in Regensburg, one could claim that the experts were right.

The two issues that I felt had the biggest potential to derail the message of Pope Benedict's visit to the U.S. were the priest sexual assault crisis and the demands of some for the ordination of women.

Pope Benedict addressed the priest sexual assault crisis even before he landed in the U.S. Once he arrived, he continually adressed the issue from many perspectives. In one presentation, he suggested that the integrity of the priesthood was a victim of the hierarchy's inability to effectively respond to victims of sexual assaults by priests. One of the key moment of the Pope's visit was one we did not see - the meeting with victims of sexual abuse by priests. Insider's report that, while the invitation to meet with the victims was aggresively presented by Cardinal Sean O'Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston, it was the Pope that insisted in accepting the invitation - much to the objections of key advisors. Initially, it appears that the Vatican and the Pope have addressed this sensitive issue in a very effective manner during the trip to the U.S.

During the Pope's visit, there was apparently a protest liturgy that was led by leaders from the women's ordination movement. I say apparently because there was very little media coverage of the event. The leaders of this movement might want to to look at how the Vatican handled the priest sexual assault issue during the U.S. visit. They might have better results in drumming up publicity in the future.

The Pope Store

As we all know, the U.S. is the heart of capitalism. The capital city of capitalism is New York, NY. Thus, is is no surprise that many people sought ways to make money from Pope Bendict XVI's trip to New York.


For many years, I have seen advertisements for "Pope on a Rope" - not anything like a cleric hanging in efficgy, but a hunk of cleric-shaped soap attached to a rope. In the past year, I have seen advertisements for "The Pope's Cologne". Much of these items can be somewhat questionable in terms of being demeaning to the Vicar of Christ. However, during the past few weeks, I came across some Pope merchandise that is very clever. Pictures are posted below.

The Pope and the Right Issues

I give Pope Benedict XVI credit. He did not shy away from discussing the priest sexual assault issue during the early portions of his trip to the United States. In fact, he met with several victims from the Archdiocese of Boston in an unannounced meeting that was closed to the media (for obvious reasons). For a report of the meeting, go to: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/04/exclusive_pope.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed4


The meeting has already been applauded by some as a sign that the Vatican "means business" in dealing with priests that have sexually assaulted people. The meeting has also been criticized as "window dressing" that looks good in the media, but does nothing to help the victims.

I view the meeting as a step in the right direction with many steps remaining. I give the Vatican and the Archdiocese of Boston credit for keeping the meeting confidential until after it took place. It would have been very easy for the Vatican to keep the priest sexual assault issue on the back burner during this trip. Fortunately, for the benefit of the many victims, including the vast majority of priest that have never sexually assaulted anyone yet are seen as pedophiles because of the action of a few priests, Pope Benedict XVI has kept the issue on the front burner duing his trip.

Benedict XVI: A "Rock" Star

The tens of thousands of regular readers of this blog will recall that my wife and I had the opportunity to run into Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, on our first evening in Rome last summer. He was kind enough to give us many suggestions of sites to visit. He strongly urged us to take a "scavi" tour at St. Peter's Basilica. That tour provides the opportunity to get very close to the actual tomb of St. Peter.

Cardinal O'Malley's fondness for St. Peter and his successors is quite obvious in the recent letter to the people of the Archidocese of Boston. It is a wonderful letter that provides a bit of history and a bit of theology. To see a copy of the letter, go to: http://www.rcab.org/News/releases/2008/0804-Papal-Message-English.pdf

The Arrival

After months of preparations, Pope Benedict XVI has finally arrived in the U.S.

However, the big news of the day was made prior to his departure from Italy. The Pope told reporters that the priesthood is no place for pedophiliacs. I see some significant positive signs in that statement. The statement shows that the Pope sees the sexual assault crisis as more of a problem where perpetrators seek to overpower their victims. He did not mention the crisis as related to sexual orientation. However, I don't know if the Pope went far enough. Many of the victims of the crisis are adults and adolescents - both male and female. Given that, the problem is far greater than pedophilia. Also, the sexual assault crisis is not just an issue in the U.S. While the crisis may have been most openly exposed in the U.S., it is a problem in every part of the world.

Let's see what day #2 of the visit brings!

A Loss in Mexico

Cardinal Ernesto Corripio Ahumada passed away on April 10th. Most people outside of Mexico have never heard of him. Everyone in Mexico knows of him since he served as Archbishop of Mexico City for many years. For an article from the Los Angeles Times, go to:

http://www.latimes.com/features/religion/la-me-corripio11apr11,1,5754840.story

Cardinal Corripio was responsible for healing a long-standing rift between the Vatican and Mexico. It is somewhat understandable why there would be a rift. Not too long ago in Mexico's history, there have been violent government-sanctioned actions against Mexican clergy. One instance involved the brutal murder of numerous priests and nuns and having their corpses tied to pillars in the public square for several days of "viewing". While we may have heard of similar instances in European countries, nobody seemed to care about what happened in Mexico because, well.....they were just Mexicans. This was the atmosphere in which Cardinal Corripio's faith matured. In spite of the struggles he experienced, he went on to forgive those responsible for such institutionalized atrocities against Catholics. He urged the Vatican to do the same. After all, Mexico has been one of the most Cathlic countries in the world for several centuries. Thanks to the efforts of Cardinal Corripio, Mexico re-established diplomatic ties with the Vatican in 1992.