Off the Record

help is on the way

By Diogenes (articles ) | November 20, 2009 12:21 PM

So you're a diocese whose bishop was arrested with kiddie-pix on his laptop. What's the pastoral response? Obvious. You help your priests get in touch with their feelings.

Priests in the diocese of Antigonish had the opportunity to express their feelings about the child pornography charges against Bishop Raymond Lahey during a two-day counselling session in North Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Rev. Paul Abbass, the spokesman for the diocese, said nearly 50 priests attended the sessions to speak about their feelings with peers and discuss ways to intervene with parishioners.

[chop]

Abbass said a psychologist from Ontario's Southdown Institute acted as a facilitator at the sessions and spoke about the challenges of the vocation as well as the issues of child pornography and pedophilia.

First question: would the Diocese call in the Southdown Institute for the feeling fest if it had the slightest fragment of belief that Lahey were innocent?

Second question: since the Diocese is officially treating its own clergy as victims of a bad bishop, and that bad bishop is suspended pre-trial like a piñata taking daily swats from the media, why can't it twist his episcopal elbow into his episcopal ear until he agrees to plead guilty? Think of it as helping the bishop get in touch with his feelings. And the psychologist could take the day off.
 

An appeal from our founder, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus:

Dear reader: If you found the information on this page helpful in your pursuit of a better Catholic life, please support our work with a donation. Your donation will help us reach five million Truth-seeking readers worldwide this year. Thank you!

Progress toward our June expenses ($15,085 to go):
$30,000.00 $14,914.93
50% 50%
Sound Off! CatholicCulture.org supporters weigh in.

All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!

There are no comments yet for this item.

Think with the Catholic Leaders: Subscribe to Catholic Culture Insights Newsletter
Donate to Support this Site: Your contribution will be put to good work.
Tour the CatholicCulture.org Site
Shop Amazon to Raise Money for Catholic Culture

Recent Catholic Commentary

Pope Francis the Frank 7 hours ago
“Illegals” are not “Immorals”: A Persistent Immigration Fallacy 9 hours ago
News coverage of the Vatican: the blind leading the blind 14 hours ago
Those Harleys again June 17
Happy Father's Day! June 14

Top Catholic News

Most Important Stories of the Last 30 Days
Vatican document demands governments protect refugees CWN - June 6
Pope acknowledges 'gay lobby' influence in Vatican CWN - June 11
Pope confirms he is completing encyclical on faith begun by Benedict XVI CWN - June 13