Reformer, ecumenist, defender of values

adminonDecember 9, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor retires. On Friday, Pope Benedict XVI appointed. the Archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols, to succeed him in the chair of Archbishop of Westminster. The search had proved difficult, with the English press repeatedly speculating about possible candidates.

Murphy-O'Connor had already announced his retirement last year upon reaching the ecclesiastical age limit shortly before his 75th birthday. Birthday offered. But the pope had asked him to remain in office "until further notice". The Archbishop of Westminster is also always Primate of the Catholics in England and Wales. Murphy-O'Connor had been at the helm of the archdiocese since 2000. At the time of his appointment, he had been considered an outsider – and a transitional candidate because of his age. Even then, Nichols was also in the running for the post. After the death of Cardinal Basil Hume, the then auxiliary bishop was appointed diocesan administrator and led the affairs of the archdiocese for nearly a year. Despite this, Murphy-O'Connor was chosen and Nichols became Archbishop of Birmingham. Born in Reading, southwest England, in 1932, one of five children of an Irish immigrant family, Murphy-O'Connor studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, prepared for the priesthood at the English College in Rome and was ordained in 1956. He first worked as a chaplain in England. Beginning in 1971, Murphy-O'Connor served as rector of the English College in Rome, where he was responsible for the formation of candidates for the priesthood. In 1977 he was consecrated bishop of the diocese of Arundel and Brighton. Controversial despite stellar career Murphy-O'Connor became known worldwide for his work as vice president of the International Anglican-Catholic Dialogue Commission(ARCIC). After his installation as archbishop of Westminster in March 2000, he was also traditionally elected president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and received the cardinalate in 2002. Murphy-O'Connor also served as vice president of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) from 2001 to 2006. Despite his stellar career, his inauguration as Catholic primate was not without controversy in England and Wales. In the wake of abuse scandals in the Catholic Church at the turn of the millennium, Murphy-O'Connor was accused of protecting a pedophile priest in his former diocese in the 1980s. The cardinal always denied the accusations, but in 2003 admitted that he had apparently "forgotten" about the abuse case on record and had not forwarded it properly. Murphy-O'Connor repeatedly apologized for failures to address abuse cases and advocated for their resolution. At the beginning of his tenure, Murphy-O'Connor was seen as a reformer who even questioned celibacy and kept the door open to converts to the Anglican Church. In January 2002, he delivered a sermon for Queen Elizabeth II. – The first by a Catholic clergyman for an English monarch since 1680. Together with the head of the Anglican Church of England, Rowan Williams of Canterbury, he spoke out against the Iraq war in 2003. Committed to the fight against poverty Murphy-O'Connor is particularly committed to fighting poverty and is a strong advocate for the naturalization of illegal migrants. He repeatedly advocated their integration, but was always critical of a multicultural society. In moral and ethical questions, the cardinal always showed himself determined and defended the values of the Catholic Church against a liberalization of society. He is a vocal opponent of contraception and abortion and opposes adoption rights for same-sex couples. The cardinal also recently protested clearly against an amendment to the British Embryo Act, which would allow the cloning of human-animal chimeras for research purposes. In the wake of the legislation, Murphy-O'Connor, together with the Archbishop of Cardiff, Peter Smith, repeatedly pleaded for the creation of a national ethics commission.

Brooklyn's Bishop DiMarzio allegedly molested an altar boy when he was a priest in the 1970s. These are the allegations of the alleged victim. New York's Cardinal Dolan has launched investigation into the matter.

New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan has launched an abuse investigation into Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, 75. The Archdiocese of New York made the announcement over the weekend. DiMarzio is accused of abusing an altar boy multiple times while he was a priest in the 1970s, according to U.S. media reports. According to the information, the alleged victim's lawyer is preparing a $20 million lawsuit. DiMarzio strongly denies the allegations.

Investigation after "Vos estis lux mundi"

The Archdiocese of New York announced that the investigation, led by Cardinal Dolan, will be based on the papal letter "Vos estis lux mundi". Pope Francis had tightened canon law standards against clergy sexual abuse with decree in May. The Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has now instructed Dolan to open an appropriate investigation against DiMarzio, it said. Earlier, Dolan informed the Holy See of allegations against the Brooklyn bishop that had been circulating for months.

DiMarzio is the second bishop in the United States against whom the new rules are being applied. The first to be affected was Michael Hoeppner (70), Bishop of Crookston, in September. This one is accused of abuse cover-up.

Ex-abuse investigator DiMarzio

The DiMarzio case is piquant not least because the cleric recently served as an abuse investigator himself. He was appointed last year to conduct an investigation in the Buffalo diocese, where Bishop Richard Malone, 73, eventually resigned in December. Malone has been criticized for a lax approach to abuse investigations.

In Poland, the "Fear Not" victims' association and Catholic bishops continue to clash over child sexual abuse by clergy. The association called for protests against 19 bishops last Sunday.

At the gates of the bishop's residences in Warsaw, Gdansk, Poznan, Wroclaw and elsewhere, protesters tied stuffed animals and attached the slogan of the action written on paper or cardboard: "Bishop's shame". The president of the association Marek Lisinski lamented, "The bishops' conference is on the side of the perpetrators." The church defends itself and does not side with the victims. Mostly a few dozen people, mainly women, took part in the protests. The initiative "Women's Strike" supported the action.

"They hide and transfer priest offenders"

A few days earlier, at a press conference of the association, a man who was abused by a priest as a 13-year-old in the diocese of Opole described his suffering. His mother said Bishop Andrzej Czaja had advised against reporting the clergyman to the prosecutor's office. It would be better if her son did not have to testify, Czaja had argued. Association activist and left-liberal Sejm deputy Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus stressed: "We have proved that the dioceses are lying. They hide and transfer priest offenders."

Even the presentation of the abuse study commissioned by the bishops in mid-March had not overcome the hard fronts between the association "Do not be afraid", the only mouthpiece of the victims, and the church. The re-elected chairman of the bishops' conference, Posen's Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, asked at the presentation all people who have experienced sexual violence by clergy to report to the church. However, he refrained from asking for forgiveness. Earlier this year, Gadecki had already announced a conversation with association head Lisinski. But until today it did not come about, what not only Lisinski criticizes.

Instead, Gadecki first spoke to others affected by abuse. At the press conference, Archbishop Gadecki had criticized the term "pedophilia in the church": "This is not an institutional problem, but a global problem." It does not only concern the church. The "ideological catchphrase 'pedophilia in the church'" not only points to the problem, but "also undermines the authority of the church and leads to the destruction of the faithful's trust in church institutions in the first place."

Claims for compensation for pain and suffering still pending

His deputy, Krakow's Archbishop Marek Jedraszewski, distanced himself from the "zero tolerance" phrase used by Pope Francis toward perpetrators of the crime. This "totalitarian" sounding choice of words is reminiscent of the fight of the National Socialists against the "enemies of the people" Jews, which had resulted in the Holocaust. Therefore, he prefers to speak of "impeccable steadfastness". These statements of Gadecki and Jedraszewski offended left-liberal commentators and also some clergymen.

Poland's Primate, Archbishop Wojciech Polak of Gniezno, meanwhile, was humble and most responsive to those affected: "Each of these victims should awaken in us clergy pain, shame and guilt that this situation has arisen. This is a shock that hurts the whole community of the church."

A payment of an average of 5.000 euros per victim "in recognition of the suffering suffered" as in Germany has not been an ie for the Polish bishops so far. Their response to claims for pain and suffering from victims of abuse is still pending. The Polish order "Society of Christ for the Pastoral Care of Emigrants" is currently appealing to the Supreme Court a judgment ordering it to pay 230.000 euros in compensation to a woman who was raped several times by a religious when she was a child. Further compensation claims are before the courts.

By Oliver Hinz

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