“Not an easy step”

adminonDecember 3, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Suspended from ministry: Priest burns rainbow banner © Mark Lennihan

Chicago Cardinal Archbishop Blase Cupich suspended a priest from ministry for burning a rainbow banner. The flag is an international symbol of the LGBT community.

As reported by the Chicago Tribune, the cardinal acted "out of concern" for the 56-year-old priest and members of the Resurrection community. Clergyman needs "time away from parish to receive pastoral support". He did not take this step lightly, Cupich wrote.

"I have the responsibility to support our priests when they have difficulties, but I also have the duty to ensure that those who serve our faithful are fully able to serve them in the way expected by the Church," the cardinal said, explaining his decision.

Impeachment already "in the works"

The priest had previously spoken of his own abuse as a child by a neighbor – as well as a later incident by a priest when he was 19 years old. Abuse crisis in church is "definitely a gay thing," he added.

To the Chicago Tribune, the priest had stated that he was not against homosexuals. A spokeswoman for the archdiocese told the newspaper that the priest's ouster was not only related to the burning of the rainbow flag, but had already been "in the works" beforehand.

The Catholic Bishop of Dresden, Heinrich Timmerevers, has called on the Catholic Church to intensify its confrontation with sexual abuse. A meeting with abuse victims had affected him, the bishop expressed.

Abuse by church employees is the "most serious expression" of an anti-human exercise of power, Timmerevers stressed in Dresden on Thursday. At an event titled "Power. Escaping seduction and abuse," he acknowledged that there is "obviously a high susceptibility" to sexual abuse in the church.

Timmerevers declared that he "expressly" supports the reform dialogue of the Catholic Church in Germany, which is working on these ies, among others. With regard to the Synodal Way, he is "not afraid" but trusts that it will also become "more and more a reality" in the Catholic Church. The task of the entire church is to "further investigate which framework conditions and patterns favor the abuse of power.

Understanding for growing impatience

The Bishop of Dresden-Meissen expressed "horror and shame" at the extent to which the church had initially reacted to abuse by "playing it down and covering it up". At the same time he expressed understanding for the fact that not only with the victims of abuse by church representatives with view of the conditions of the church processing "the impatience grows". A meeting with abuse victims had "changed" him, Timmerevers said. The descriptions of their experiences had affected him as no other encounter had before.

The president of the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Hans Zollner, said the cover-up of sexual abuse within its ranks has stripped the Catholic Church in countries such as Australia, Ireland and the U.S. of almost all credibility on other ethical ies as well. If the church fails to effectively address the failure to deal with abuse and embed sustainable prevention measures, he said, this will lead to a continued paralysis of the church as a whole. But a proven prevention strategy can counter abuse in the long term, the Jesuit said, even if it is an illusion to be able to prevent such crimes altogether.

The theme day was organized by the Catholic Academy, the Caritas Association and the Prevention Office of the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen.

California dioceses await subpoena from state attorney general's office

Six of the twelve dioceses in the U.S. state of California are preparing to be subpoenaed by prosecutors in connection with abuse cases in the near future. This was confirmed by the spokesman of the Sacramento diocese, Kevin Eckery.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra had asked all twelve dioceses in May to keep all documents related to abuse allegations against priests. Six of them were also asked to submit files. These include the archdioceses of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the dioceses of Sacramento, Fresno, San Jose and Orange.

The expected subpoenas are about how dioceses have handled abuse allegations against priests, the diocese spokesman explained. He said the church is committed to "fully record the past sins of sexual abuse by clergy and to do everything possible to ensure that such things are never repeated".

New law on lawsuits

The attorney general had previously asked all victims of sexual abuse to contact his office. On 1. January, a new law goes into effect in California that extends the time window of lawsuit claims by abuse victims. Victim advocates expect against this background with a new flood of complaints. So far, the California dioceses alone have paid several hundred million dollars in compensation.

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