NSAC Says Irish Bishops Christmas Resignations Small but Necessary Stirrings of Taking of Responsibility
The following message is from NSAC chair Kristine Ward.
Thanks, Kris.
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National Survivor Advocates Coalition Says Irish Bishops Christmas Resignations
Small but Necessary Stirrings of Taking of Responsibility
Asks Michigan Catholics to Re-Examine Philadelphia Grand Report Regarding Bishop Cistone
Notes Pope Ducks Mention of Continuing Crisis in Christmas Messages
For Immediate Release – December 25, 2009
The Christmas resignations of two additional bishops in Ireland, both auxiliaries in Dublin, brings to four the total number of resignations of bishops named in the Murphy Report.
The National Survivor Advocates Coalition called it a small stirring of a needed and neccessary taking of responsibility.
While calling on the fifth Irish bishop named in the Murphy Report to report to also resign, the National Survivor Advocates Coalition pointedly notes that the current number does outdo the number of US bishops who resigned by 300%.
US bishops, while unveiled as protectors of priests who sexually abused childrens in grand jury reports, their own depositions and the testimony of victims, hide behind generic general apologies and statues of limitations.
With the Irish bishops as an example, the coalition called upon Catholics in Saignaw Michigan to re-examine the Philadelphia Grand Jury Report in regard to Bishop Cistone, current bishop of Sagninaw, and a former auxiliary bishop in Phiadelphia.
Will it take the full weight and force of a country’s government, as it did in Ireland, before there are the first stirrings of actual personal taking of responsibility by bishops in this country or could their actually be Christmas miraontacles where words match actions, the coalition asked.
The coalition expressed its deep disppointment that neither Pope Benedict’s Christmas homily or his Urbi et Orbi Christmas message to the City of Rome and to the world made any direct mention of the crisis in Ireland and in fact the crisis that affects the entire Church.
It is the only issue over which the Pope has direct control of all the issues, tragedies and circumstances mentioned in his two Christmas addresses and yet he remained silent.
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2 Responses to “NSAC Says Irish Bishops Christmas Resignations Small but Necessary Stirrings of Taking of Responsibility”
December 27, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Based on the ENABLING of sex crimes committed against children and adults, Irish Bishops made decisions to resign their positions in the Catholic Church–thank you! Catholic children and adults in Ireland have now moved one step closer to finding much needed truth, justice and peace. Tragically, in the United States, the greatest and most generous country in the world, Catholic Cardinals and Bishops have continued to justify their role in the clergy sex abuse crisis by retaining politically-connected attorneys to plead freedom of religion and separation of Church and State in criminal and civil courts of law.
Any moral and decent human being understands that freedom of religion privilege is not a free pass to sexually abuse anyone and never will be. Our children in the world continue to observe each and every decision made by individuals trying to justify and/or deny the wrongs revealed since the clergy sex abuse crisis erupted in 2001. What happens? The Church’s attorneys get richer….. the truths (sex crimes) remain dirty secrets in sealed Church files… the legal battles continue in U.S. courts…. and the civil rights of unsuspecting children, adults and the faithful in the pews are denied–all in the name of God.
Does anyone truly believe decisions made by the Vatican, the U.S. Church and its attorneys, in defense of business practices that have enabled sex abuse crimes against children and adults for decades, are strokes of genius or God’s plan for the Church?
Without justice, there will never be peace. Without peace, faith and our country’s laws are empty.
January 25, 2010 at 3:18 pm
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