Pope Francis, Innocent until proven guilty?

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fin said:
I have a question regarding the other bishops and priests who xovered up.

Many people say they should resign. But I don’t know, I feel sexual abuse cover up is too egregious for a person to simply resign. I mean shouls not the enablers be in jail? If it were an ordinary individual who covered up and was found out, I would think he wouls be behind bars by now.
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I have the same question. What about public de-frocking? I think the victims and the laity would appreciate knowing exactly what is happening to offenders and abettors when they are laicized, “sent for treatment,” and removed from positions. Removing the offenders from priestly ministry in a public procedure would be welcomed by many and could prove a deterrent for would-be offenders.
 
I really would like to apply the concept of innocent until proven guilty to our Holy Father, but he certainly doesn’t seem intent on helping me do that. The testimony of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, to me, appears very credible, especially given the crowd that Pope Francis appoints as his advisors and then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s reputation for taking on abuser priests as head of the CDF. If His Holiness had issued a refutation or some other manner of a substanial response to the allegations, then I might have been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his weak response on the papal plane destroyed any confidence I had left. The Pontifical PR Team has been trying to wreck Viganò’s reputation instead of his arguments, a fact which, to me, proves that the Domus Sanctae Marthae is in a bit of a panic.
 
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Bring back the formal excommunication rite for abusers, the bell book and candle one. That rite (not sure if if anyone else has read it) really scares me.
 
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I refuse to let evil men send me running from God’s Church. They wil die; it will endure.
 
Lomaiviti said:
We should leave this church. The leaders are raping our young generation. This is not Godly.
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Sorry, I hit the like button for your post when I meant to hit reply. Don’t like your post at all, and speaking for those who believe like I do that we don’t know all the facts and all the motivations of the accusers, there is no reason to hang this pope from the yardarm.

If questionable accusations regarding past actions to which we are not totally privy to bother you so much, and you really don’t care much for the real presence of Christ in the Church and His sacraments, please, as you say, leave the church. If you are not happy, why stick around? You’ll feel much better in some Pentecostal arena, devoid of the sacraments and 10% lighter in the wallet.
 
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they don’t lose Bishop status and in fact do get dusted off to perform duties . Our Bishop Emeritus is really busy celebrating Mass, conferring sacraments and doing all manner of things. He says he won’t go to meetings anymore now he is retired 🙂
 
I am so sorry for him. I am sorry archbishops are turning against him. I feel like I’m in the Church of hundreds of years ago…full of intrigues and skullduggery. (sp?) Many of them didn’t approve of his kindness.
I thought I had put this awful thing in a place where I could move on…but each day there is something else that sickens me anew.
Pope Francis was always saying ‘Pray for me’. He gave so much unconditional love to people shunned by the church. He gave them hope for salvation. He gave me and others hope of seeing our beloved pets again in heaven.
Now awful things done over decades are falling on him. He’s becoming the ‘fall guy’ as it were.
 
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Meh, I’m not naive enough to think that this also doesn’t happen elsewhere. If I go anywhere it will be to the Orthodox, but I don’t think this will have that much weight on my decision. I’ve been on the fence for a while anyways.
 
Usagi said:
These are cases going back decades, and the prelates involved in the cover-up have been in office since then. If Pope Francis knew, he should go down.
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It would be wonderful if, in a thread like this, people actually stuck to the facts. To wit: Pope Francis did not cover up any sexual improprieties, reassigning priests who were abusers to other dioceses so that they could continue their abuse. What Vigano claims is that Pope Francis knew of McCarrick’s past activities, and restored him to his office, (THE DUTIES HE WAS ASSIGNED THREE YEARS AGO!) He did not put McCarrick back as archbishop of D.C. so he could continue his sexual abuse. Heavens, the man was 85 years old. What Francis did was allow McCarrick to go back to whatever clerical function he was serving. I would imagine if Benedict did not defrock McCarrick, Francis probably felt it wasn’t his responsibility since the charges against McCarrick were not presented to him.

Toi paint Francis as a man covering up sexual abuse is 100% wrong. Did he make a mistake in judgment, politically, maybe, but Francis is not covering up abuse, at least in McCarrick’s case.
 
Doing / saying nothing, I think, will prove to be the worst thing he can do for the Church.
Let’s hope he takes a different approach…than ignoring the matter.
 
Not to excuse at all the behavior of abusers/enabling abuse. But my understanding is that many saints (St. Gerard Majella, for instance) have been silent when falsely accused. Is it possible he’s following the same example?
 
The EWTN crowd give some interesting perspective on the whole matter:

 
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