Clergy discipline questioned
By Rachel Zoll
Associated Press
NEW YORK — An influential U.S. Roman Catholic theologian says the discipline policy that American bishops adopted in response to the clergy sex-abuse crisis ignores priests' due-process rights and should be changed.
In an article in the June 21 edition of the Jesuit magazine America, Cardinal Avery Dulles said the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People violated Catholic belief in redemption.
The plan bars clergy from any church work after one offense and, because of delays at the Vatican, can leave some waiting for years to learn whether they will be forced out of the priesthood altogether.
"In their effort to protect children, to restore public confidence in the church as an institution and to protect the church from liability suits, the bishops opted for an extreme response," Dulles wrote.
His comments came on the eve of the bishops' spring retreat, which starts Monday in Colorado, and as church leaders are poised to review the plan they enacted two years ago at the height of the molestation scandal.
Dulles, the only U.S. theologian ever elevated to the position of cardinal, echoed complaints from priests that some balance was needed between protecting children and preserving the rights of clergy.
About 700 accused priests and deacons were suspended from church work between January 2002, when the scandal erupted, and February of this year, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"We cannot throw these people away," said the Rev. Robert Silva, president of the National Federation of Priests' Councils. His group represents about half of the 46,000 U.S. priests.
To critique the discipline plan, Dulles quoted from the bishops' 2000 criminal justice document called "Responsibility and Rehabilitation," in which they condemn "one-size-fits-all solutions" and urge society to "welcome ex-offenders back into society ... to the extent feasible."
Dulles said the bishops' discipline policy breached those principles by imposing the same punishment on all transgressors, even if an offense was decades old and the clergyman had committed no wrongdoing since.
"Such action seems to reflect an attitude of vindictiveness to which the church should not yield," he said.
He said priests are often removed from ministry even when incomplete records make it impossible to fully evaluate their cases, and that by suspending priests indefinitely, bishops are unfairly branding the men guilty.
Jason Berry, co-author of "Vows of Silence," on the Vatican's response to sex abuse by clergy, said Dulles' argument is rooted in church law that is "antiquated" on the molestation issue.
"You can split hairs over the code of canon law, but the reality is that it is not an independent judicial system and that is the flaw. The pope can intervene at any time. The church needs a separation of powers. It needs an independent legal mechanism, not only to handle abuse cases but to deal with bishops who have violated the trust."
