The whole “global” thing has some pretty specific drawbacks, mostly in the question of the Church’s relationship with civil authorities.  The frothers are always shouting that the Church should have called the cops and then the perps would be in jail and ignore that there are a lot of steps in between there.  What about the Church in countries where raping children is not a crime?  What about the Church in countries where the police and courts are so corrupt that the facts of guilt or innocence are irrelevant—are we going to throw accused priests under the bus in those countries, too?

In the US I’m pretty comfortable with the rule of law, and even here we’ve certainly had our insane witch hunts.  What about someplace like Thailand, where a priest who shelters those who escape from the sex trade, or even just preaches that it is wrong, could be easily framed by the local pimps.

You wrote, “But unlike civil law, the Church will not establish a statue of limitations, therefore guilty priests can be punished even after many years have gone by since they committed the crimes.”  Interestingly, Connecticut is considering eliminating the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits related to allegations of child sexual abuse.  The Archdiocese of Hartford wrote to all parishioners asking them to contact their elected representatives and oppose the legislation.  Bankruptcy was the stated risk.  It is surprising that Rome leads by example in one direction in Church law and the Archdiocese of Hartford advocates the opposite direction in civil law.

Would this mean that CDF alone would handle the laicization of abusive priests?  I’m all for implementing the US norms for the world. The American plan works.  However, I could see major delays if Rome handles most or all of the laicizations.  I understand that some bishops in western countries haven’t acted as quickly as they should have in laicizing abusive priests.  Still, I suspect local bishops will have to have a hand in expulsing abusive priests from ministry, if only to expedite the process.

Is the state of CT interested in lifting the statue of limitations on all institutions, such as public schools, or just on private institutes (read Catholic Church).

If that’s the discriminatory case, then the good bishop is doing his duty.

The state of NY tried this, and when they realized it would bankrupt the state if the public statutes were lifted, they backed off.

An additional action must be taken: since Pope John Paul II failed to confront the 1998 molestation accusations against Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, Pope Benedict XVI should terminate all efforts to beatify his predecessor.  Please see the following blog item, and please view the embedded video:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/04/the-vaticans-watergate-follow-the-money-ctd.html

Keep and spread the Faith.

It makes me more than a little nervous that the Church is doing away with statutes of limitations.  The Bertone that we see in the “smoking gun” meeting looks to me like he has it reasonably right—sure, the statute of limitations is waived, but that still doesn’t mean that a fair trial is going to be able to prove anything to any reasonable standard after a long time has passed.  But we know that such reasonableness is not automatic—we are in the throes of a hysterical witch hunt (the hysteria is on display as close by as the comment threads of this blog) and the urge to throw the accused to the baying hounds is pretty strong.  The bishops haven’t done so well at protecting abuse victims when it interfered with what was convenient to them, and I don’t see that they will do any better at protecting innocent accused priests.

Regarding the statue of limitations, the ecclesial case is not identified with the civil aspect—even if the state in its realm maintains the statue, the Church’s role toward the priest is different: his abuse of his priestly state is cared for.
Also, I wouldn’t jump to say the Church is going to do these cases hastily or rashly, either.  Faster doesn’t mean without due process and due honesty.  The Church isn’t trying to get money out of the cases, but to address the abuse by priests who shouldn’t have been doing that.  If innocent, they will remain so.

“Statue” in the first sentence was Statute: sorry for the typo.

Too bad it took the public exposure of decades of irresponsible action by Bishops, Archbishops, and even Cardinals—and an unprecedented level of public outrage—to create the environment among Church leaders where such responsible action could be taken and find acceptance.

Yep, now it’s too bad that the public institutions aren’t following suit and following policies to report sexual abusers and not pass them around.

In October 2007, AP released a report on sexual misconduct committed by public school teachers and found 2,570 cases over a five year period. In fact, it’s much worse than this. As AP disclosed, “Most of the abuse never gets reported.”
·Why does most of the abuse go unreported? “School administrators make behind-the-scenes deals to avoid lawsuits and other trouble. And in state capitals and Congress, lawmakers shy from tough state punishments or any cohesive national policy for fear of disparaging a vital profession.”

·What happens to molesting teachers? “Too often, problem teachers are allowed to leave quietly. That can mean future abuse for another student and another school district.” Indeed, it happens so often it is called “passing the trash” or the “mobile molester.”
(quoted from the Catholic League)

So, Dan, are you posting on the teachers’ unions’ websites and on the Secretary of Education’s site as well?

Too bad after their public exposure, it’s still going on!

This is very good news. While the US and some European countries have established firm rules for dealing with abusing priests, in much of rest of the world bishops are lax and abuse continues as bad as ever.

Sincere catholics are happy that the authorities have admitted the existece of the abuse and the misgovernance causing the present crisis.We are sure the Church founded by Jesuswill not be destroyed by sins and enemies. Every catholic including the abusers know what is right and what is wrong. Now the Vatican issues instructions to follow if any cases come up. The implementation of the instructions is the important thing. Hope there will not be any lapse May God give strength to all to abide by the teaching of Jesus and His Church