THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN UPDATED IN A POST HERE.
Unless a major stink is raised, the USCCB will this weekend elect Bishop Kicanas as President of the USCCB.
Up until this point in time, my response to the ordination and enabling of pedophiles has been very measured. I understand that it was the responsibility of the family of the victim to call the police. I am well aware that there are many falsely accused priests and I have been very outspoken about the trampling of their due process, their civil rights, their canonical rights and the right to the restoration of their vocation and reputation when the allegation has no merit. (I will have more on this in the upcoming week as the diocese prepares to slander the reputation of priests who are not alive to defend themselves or provide evidence of their innocence.)
Bishop Kicanas has the most lethal combination of poor judgment and arrogance I have ever seen in a Bishop. Coming from a Bostonian, that is saying a LOT.
When Bishop Kicanas found out a seminarian of his was a pedophile who had abused three children, he said it would have been "grossly unfair" not to ordain him, that raping children was a kink in sexual maturity that would work itself out - 23 children later, it still hadn't. Kicanas said he was much more concerned about the seminarians alcoholism and got him counseling for that. He summarizes the whole thing by saying there was nothing that could have been done any differently.
Boston Catholics are going to take the next few days to contact their bishops and make it clear if they vote for Bishop Kicanas, we will immediately begin a campaign to de-fund the Bishop's Appeal.
If you are reading from Boston, please stay tuned. If you are reading from another diocese, please contact your Bishops to express your concerns and let him know he will be held accountable for his vote and spread the word so that other Catholics will do the same.
Time is of the essence because the vote takes place in a few days.
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4 comments:
Why oppose it? His election will personify the incompetence of the USCCB.
On principle, to let them know they are being watched and we see exactly what they are doing.
Because it is a scandal thay will further erode trust and keep people away from the Sacraments.
Did you know that the number of Catholics in Boston has lost another hundred thousand people over the last three years? We are down to 200 thousand with a median age of 65. If they elect this clown, it certainly will be the springboard to de-funding them in a formal campaign.
I wrote a serious, heartfelt letter to an auxiliary bishop and received no reply. I wrote a pastor in another diocese in whose church I witnessed a liturgical abuse (of the Eucharist) and received no reply. My spiritual director told me to "give it to Jesus" at this point in time. I am tired or writing letters (and I've written six over the years, fully documented). I have no hope for this generation of bishops.
M
M,
I am completely aware and share your frustration that they have set up the fix for scandals as having us writing letters like fools that they throw into the trash heap.
This is why we are taking things public, documenting the insincerity and dysfunction of it all and next year we will be hitting them where it matters to them - their almighty dollars.
We have to keep up the letter and fax campaigns to document how asinine it all to let them know that we know that they know and some day somebody who cares from the Vatican is going to know. Ultimately, some of them wake up and realize this means that God sees what they are doing.
We can effect change, even when all these bishops care about is their careers and the money which ultimately affects their careers.
You've got to keep doing it when we put up these campaigns and you've got to get other people to do it.
The process has gone from Fr. Kickham throwing the letters into the trash where nobody else knows what you've seen, how it scandalizes God or his people and that you've sent a letter that they threw into the trash or sent some patronizing malarkey - to publicly documenting what they are doing.
This is a major change that is already making a difference in many ways.
This is a new change in how we operate. If you are at the point where your frustration with the lack of results is really derailing your spirituality, then simply pray for us, which I know you do.
But if you can detach from the results for a bit and let them know their arrogance and corruption and ineptitude and cowardice is going public and help us unravel what they are doing Christ and His Church - get going girl.
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