In December of 2009, Bishops Raymond Field and Eamonn Walsh resigned from their positions. They didn’t molest little children themselves, but they never pursued allegations of sexual abuse. So they were complicit in the Catholic Church sex scandal
Anyway, they’re gone, so good riddance, right?
“Following the presentation of their resignations to Pope Benedict, it has been decided that Bishop Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field will remain as auxiliary bishops,” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said in a letter to priests of the Archdiocese reported in The Irish Catholic.
Wait… what?! The Pope rejected their resignations and gave them new jobs!
Why the hell would the Vatican do that?
Paddy Agnew explains it this way:
This reluctance [to accept resignations] is at least twofold. First, there is nothing the Holy See would like less than to be seen to be dismissing bishops, solely in response to pressure from the media and public opinion. Secondly, senior Vatican figures are concerned about a possible “domino effect” for the Irish hierarchy. In other words, there may still be many Irish bishops with “mishandling/bureaucratic”, sex abuse skeletons still in the cupboard who would also have to resign.
To a certain extent, say observers, the Vatican has opted to differentiate between sins of omission and sins of commission in relation to the clerical sex abuse scandal.
Mark Silk puts it a little more bluntly:
… if all bishops who covered up clerical sexual abuse were permitted to resign, the episcopal ranks would be decimated. And then where would the church be? But of course, no one in the hierarchy can say that publicly. So the decision is announced in the quietest way possible, with no explanation offered. For the good of the church.
Tell me again why people belong to this pedophile-supporting organization…?
(Thanks to Jenna for the link)
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