originalmaja.de
June 2010: on current news
In THE INTELLIGENCE SQUAR DEBATE "Is the Catholic Church a Force for Good in the world?", Archbishop John Onaiyekan tried to make a point:
Quote: "All of our Catholic policies are not just dreamt overnight by the Pope or anybody. If it is a Catholic policy, it is reasonable; it is based on our traditions and scriptures."
He was on to something specific. But he didn't put it into words; it was something obvious for him. Maybe that's why it just sounded plain arrogant, beside the point of the questioner, and, above all: vague.
Hold on, I thought, is he actually going to name to some of those policies? - But, no, he didn't. Things had to move on; topic done.
Policies... Hm. Of course, there are self-made laws to which the Catholic apparatus is bound. It's very own bureaucracy. But one shouldn't refer to such as 'reasonable'. Neither when you are a devoted Catholic, nor when you're me.
On May 30th 2010 the Associated Press MATT SEDENSKY published a report. It is titled "Future pope refused defrocking of convicted priest". And it says:
"Changes in church law under Pope John Paul II frustrated and hamstrung U.S. bishops struggling with an abuse crisis that would eventually explode. [...]"
The impact of John Paul's laws: "A bishop's plea to remove the [sexually abusing] priest [was been denied] for no other reason than the abuser's refusal to go along with it."
The 'reasonable' background of this:
"With the church still recovering from a notable departure of priests in the 1970s to marry, John Paul made it tougher to leave the priesthood after assuming the papacy in 1978, saying their vocation was a lifelong one. A consequence of that policy was that, as the priest sex abuse scandal arose in the U.S., bishops were no longer able to sidestep the lengthy church trial necessary for laicization. [...]"