Another bishop's message
By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Feb 06, 2012
At our parish, the bishop's letter was read to the congregation before the First Reading. Maybe this was a mistake; in other parishes it was read after the Gospel and/or homily. But for us the placement had a special impact. This was an epistle: a letter from the bishop, encouraging us to be firm in faith.
Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org. See full bio.
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Posted by: Leopardi -
May. 13, 2019 11:51 AM ET USA
Phil, I share your concern that the new procedures seem not to clarify the issue of punishment for sexual crimes proven to have been committed, however, but I take comfort in Article 19 that states "these norms apply without prejudice to the rights and obligations established in each place by state laws...". I take this to mean that guilty offenders will be subject to state and federal criminal law and i highly support that notion.
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Posted by: feedback -
May. 10, 2019 10:06 AM ET USA
I am afraid that the new sex-abuse guidelines could serve to normalize clerical homosexuality, as long as it's "consensual" and not forbidden by the civil law. It will be the metropolitan who has the power to decide whether accusations should be investigated or dismissed, and a good number of metropolitans appear to be pretty gay-friendly. A bishop of a smaller diocese could be blocked by the metropolitan and not able to discipline his openly homosexual priest.
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Posted by: John J Plick -
Feb. 07, 2012 10:11 AM ET USA
I do not know what your bishop's letter was, either for the good or for the bad, I could hope that it was "good," even excellent. What many of these communications lack is a reference point for what being "firm in the faith (Catholic faith I presume)" means in terms of our lives lived outside of the formal Church. Case in point, the bishops' "seamless garment" approach which places ALL problematic death on the same level, ie; "abortion" is on the same level as an execution. Vague and passive.
