With almost record-breaking speed for an institution as venerable as the Vatican, the resignation of the 68-year-old Catholic Bishop of Phoenix, Thomas O’Brien, was accepted within hours of his being charged with hit-and-run killing of a 200-pound male jaywalker.
In early May, O’Brien signed a confidential agreement acknowledging that he knew of alleged sexual misconduct by priests whom he allowed to have continued contact with minors.
That absolutely outrageous and inexcusable conduct for any Christian bishop did not lead to O’Brien’s immediate removal, as it should have. But his hit-and-run killing on top of P.P.P.P.P.P. (passing pedophile priests from parish to parish) led to his direct ouster.
Jesus Christ stipulated for those who offend little children (and what is more offensive than either sodomizing or raping them?), “It would be better for him that a millstone be tied around his neck and that he be tossed into the midst of the sea.”
Similar unprecedented speed by the Vatican is needed, immediately, for what former FBI agent and former Governor of Oklahoma Frank Keating announced when he resigned as chairman of the national review board.
This board of Catholic laypeople had been charged by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops with enforcing the zero-tolerance of child abuse adopted last year by the bishops.
And what happened? Gov. Keating, a former federal prosecutor, in his resignation announcement declared. “To resist grand jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, to deny, to obfuscate, to explain away; that is the model of a criminal organization, not my church.
“To act like La Cosa Nostra and hide and suppress, I think, is very unhealthy. Eventually it will all come out.”
Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney, whom Keating accused of listening “too much to his lawyers and not enough to his heart” in dealing with the panel’s investigation, issued a sharp rebuke Friday, calling Keating’s comments “the last straw” and saying he would ask other bishops to consider calling for Keating to step down during their annual meeting this week.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, long sharply critical of the bishops, said that if a lay Catholic of Keating’s “prominence, skills and credentials can be forced out by a few thin-skinned bishops, it’s hard to be optimistic about the sincerity of church leaders.”
Keating’s complaints followed the decision of California’s bishops, led by Mahoney, not to participate in the board’s statistical survey of dioceses on the “nature and scope” of the abuse crisis.
Here is where the Vatican should begin – right away: With California’s Catholic bishops ordered to cooperate immediately with this national review board. And if Cardinal Mahoney resists – the Vatican should demand his resignation as rapidly as they did that of the bishop of Phoenix.
Gov. Keating noted, “Most of America’s bishops are fully supportive” of the board he chaired the past year and “stood up for virtue.”
That is important for all Americans to remember about this largest religious denomination in the United States: “Most of America’s [Catholic] bishops are fully supportive.”
The Vatican should immediately seek out those bishops – like Cardinal Mahoney – who are not fully supportive, and tell them, “You cooperate or your resignation is acceptable and demanded, immediately.”
In a column for the op-ed page of the New York Times, Gov. Keating wrote among other things, “I remain optimistic that the church – my church – will ultimately protect the innocent and hold the guilty accountable. The national review board, no matter who leads it, is an expression of the hopes of millions of American Catholics. As such, it can and must continue its work.
“My optimism is based on my meetings with Catholic clergy and lay members over the past year. They understand the challenge the church faces, and they will not stand for a retreat from the truth. These are people who have come together not just to address a crisis, but to rescue their shared faith. Theirs is a mission and a movement that will not be denied.”
