Cardinal O'Malley appointed to CDF

A little news for Boston Catholics -- Cardinal O'Malley has been appointed to the CDF.

I don't know how the fiefdom of the CDF is structured, but media reports seem to indicate his appointment is to a department that investigates clergy sexual abuse.

Isn't this the job Deely held for years back in his Monsignor days?

Kind of a low level job for a Cardinal, isn't it?

Somebody please tell me this appointment will require he take up permanent residence in a cozy little apartment in Rome and we will be getting a new Archbishop?

He's been wanting to live in Rome for years.  His heart is there, and the inmates have been running the asylum here in Boston for a very long time., so this would be a welcome outcome for everyone involved. 

How could he effectively manage a large archdiocese, continue his current advisory roles and take on another assignment at the CDF?  There aren't enough hours in the day.  He doesn't have the time for the assignments he already holds.

A few things I find curious about this appointment:

Cardinal O'Malley's management of accusations involves hysteria and  gross civil, canonical and spiritual injustices to the accused.    Even when an accused priest has evidence that exonerates or makes the accusation impossible or unlikely, the accused is stripped of his vocation and money is given to the accuser.   The treatment of the accused is unjust and cruel and most certainly sinful.  Any righteous person who follows these incidents would be sickened.  

Is the Holy See going to adopt unjust practices against the accused?  Or is the leopard going to change his spots?

More importantly, I would expect that credentials for a position at the CDF mandate sophisticated mastery of ethics and theology.   

Like every one of us, Cardinal Sean is doing his best to use his gifts and talents to serve Christ and his people.   He has a great love for the poor.

With respect to theology, faithful Catholics have had a lot of run ins with Cardinal Sean.   The diocese is replete with priests and laity who either don't teach the faith or they blatantly contradict it.  This causes immature faith of children to be misled quite easily.

For many years, the chancery was a place that took up a hostile enemy position against parents and priests encountering spiritual abuse, heresy and apostasy.  

Not the kind of conduct that belongs anywhere near the CDF.

One of our run ins involved a contract to hire off-site abortionists and commitments to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to chauffeur the victims to the hireling to be executed.  Cardinal Sean could not grasp the theological contradictions inherent in his arrangement and needed the bioethics center folks to help him come to Jesus on it.   

When the bioethics center put the kibosh on the arrangement, rather than an apology to lay people who called his attention to the theology and ethical problems, Cardinal Sean called CJ Doyle, myself and Judie Brown of the American Life League "people doing a great disservice to the Church".

Again, this is not the illustration of mature adults on a pursuit of truth necessary for an appointment at the CDF.

A bishop is a spiritual parent whose primary responsibility is the sanctification of his see.   The complexity of problems we run into isn't limited to heretics and apostates.   Weakness, cowardice, pride, stupidity, communist leanings and a whole host of other problems can make a bishop ineffective or problematic.

Finally, I call the attention of Boston readers to the last line in the article linked above.    Terry Donilon took the phone off the hook.   Can anyone explain to me what that man does to earn his salary?

Saying nothing is certainly an improvement from inflammatory remarks, threats and slander, but how do they justify his overblown salary?