tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post4289900654076936256..comments2023-12-14T21:13:46.857-06:00Comments on Tom Roeser's Blog: Personal Aside: Bishop Thomas Paprocki Responds A Counter-Comment and an
Urge of Readers Plebiscite.Jake Parrillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11195261008177966339noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post-18217652922981728882007-11-20T09:52:33.000-06:002007-11-20T09:52:33.000-06:00Faith in lawsuits is not the kind of faith needed ...Faith in lawsuits is not the kind of faith needed right now to address problems in the churchJoe D's cousin Ralphnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post-17426958463477729852007-11-20T09:24:57.000-06:002007-11-20T09:24:57.000-06:00I tend to concur with the insights of the Bishop o...I tend to concur with the insights of the Bishop on this one. Be very careful in embracing lawsuits as a mechanism that will purge the church of bad actors --it wont. It will just run up the costs for those who believe they are contributing to a charitable or religious cause to buy the peace of the powerful. Sure, an occasional pedophile is run out of the church. However, is'nt the better tool to use our criminal justice system to prosecute felony rape and child sexual abuse. That way, the bad actors are actually punished and removed not only from the church, but also from society. The civil justice system is not going to fight to restore orthodox Catholics to the heirarchy of the church. It will be content to leave them in positions of power so long as the money keeps flowing to pay off litigants. Victory in the civil arena will never be defined as restoring the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church to positions of respect and moral authority. Victory will never be defined as seeing some of the excellent clerics you write about elevated, and the "Lavender mob" vanquished. Victory will be defined in dollars and cents, not in spiritual renewal. Dr Tom, in your quest to help heal this ailing church, a quest in which I pray you succeed, and admire your efforts, please consider alternate medicines.BlackRobenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post-33348092473070867012007-11-20T08:39:41.000-06:002007-11-20T08:39:41.000-06:00I lived in the Boston Archdiocese when the stuff w...I lived in the Boston Archdiocese when the stuff was hitting the fan (God bless the Boston Globe and Phoenix). Editorials, Voice of the Faithful, SNAP protests - zero effect. When we withheld our annual donations to the Cardinal's Appeal (later hypocritically renamed the Catholic Appeal) then some flexibility started coming out of the chancery. Then enough people started putting 2 and 2 together and figured that under "Corporation Sole" laws that our donations to Catholic Charities were going to get swept down the drain as well - the long time (lay) head of Catholic Charities publicly came out for Law's resignation. Of course he was promptly replaced with a tonsured head. But Rome finally started to pay attention.<br><br>Bishop Tom mischaracterizes the motivation behind big lawsuits. No one is trying the hurt the Church - they are just trying to stop the hierarchs from destroying the Church. Unfortunately the only two-by-four that our legal system gives the ordinary citizen is a big-bucks law suit.Andy Kowalczyknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post-18700122264521691222007-11-20T08:24:38.000-06:002007-11-20T08:24:38.000-06:00I am sure that when Jim and Tammy Fay Bakker were ...I am sure that when Jim and Tammy Fay Bakker were at the height of their ministry that funds were flowing to good works ala the Catholic Charities. But then came the immorality then the fall and then the collapse. At the core there was moral failure because of illicit sex and its related financial implications.<br><br>Propping up the Bakker Ministries for the sake of preserving its good works or the jobs of the innocent employees was not possible due to the depth of the moral failure at the top of the organization.<br><br>The same can be said for the Catholic Church, Catholic Charities, or the economic future of those who derive income from the Church who are innocent but caught up in the whirlwind. The sexual perversity that is at the core of the Church's problems today is wide spread in the Church. Many in the hierarchy of the Church are guilty of arrogance and coverup. If Catholic Charities and its good works fall because of this, SO BE IT! If decent people like Bishop Paprocki find that the Church is humbled and diminished because of this, remember that this deviant sexual sin is a most serious matter. Tom is right in his view on this. If it takes a financial collapse of the Church to remove the arrogance of those in high places then it will have served a good purpose and will have taught a very import lesson that pride comes before a fall. All the oil paintings, investment portfolios, and gold of the Church should not insulate the wrongdoers from justice.<br><br>It is obvious that sexual perversion in the Church runs deep as evidenced by the large number perpetrators. Church cover up and arrogance at the upper levels has been appalling. To put it simply, fear of GOD has to be put back into the Church hierarchy.<br><br>By stripping the church of its financial veil, there will be no place to hide, there will be no room for arrogance, there will no means for a cover-up, and a harsh penalty for sexual deviancy will have been firmly established.<br><br>Also nothing is written that says the Catholic Church in its present form will be guaranteed existence for ever! The Church is not so big and so powerful that it can't go the way of Jim and Tammy Fay's Ministry.<br><br>To many conservative, traditional, paleo-Catholics (like the term Tom?) such a shake up to the core is long over due!Lawrencenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709087743016851805.post-17526222166456731482007-11-20T07:20:03.000-06:002007-11-20T07:20:03.000-06:00"For example, there was no grounds whatsoever..."For example, there was no grounds whatsoever for Cardinal George accepting the candidacy of Bishop Gerald Kicanas as vice president given that the Cardinal knows full well or should know full well that Kicanas presided over Mundelein and the Niles adjunct when in the 1990s they were at the nadir of their disreputability."<br><br>The problem with the Cardinal is that, in spite of his potential for greatness, he seems to accept acting like a mediocrity by simply getting along with whatever the crowd demands--whether so-called progressive politicians, media, or Catholics. It's truly a tragedy that he wastes his obvious God-given talents on often acting as just another Church office holder of little or poor repute when the Lord has asked greater things of him.<br><br>In addition, for the good of the Church, not to mention his own soul, Bishop Kicanas needs to offer his resignation as Vice President-elect of th USCCB. He would provide truly an example of humility and courage in doing so. And he needs to reconsider his scandalous and rather stupid remarks concerning Dan McCormack. That's the very least that needs be done--for a start.<br><br>Thank you, Tom, for this forum and thank you, Bishop Paprocki, for your remarks and carification.John Hetmannoreply@blogger.com