UPDATE: Rigali resigning; Chaput to Philadelphia
Monday, July 18, 2011
By Bryan Cones
Comments (30)
UPDATE: The Philadelphia Inquirer is now reporting that Rigali has indeed resigned and, further, that Charles Chaput, the current archbishop of Denver is going to take his place. Winters at NCR had Chaput on his short list, though Winters did not see his appointment as preferable (unless I am misreading him).
Chaput seems like an odd choice for this particular assignment; he is not particularly known for a pastoral touch--and that's what Philadelphia is going to need.. He is a bishop in the vein of Chicago's Cardinal Francis George--more confrontational as well as intellectual. In fact it seems likely--though this is pure speculation--that George had a hand in Chaput's "promotion."
What I think is most likely is that Chaput would have gone to Philadelphia anyway; Rigali is 76, past the age of retirement, and Chaput is only 66 and looked to be a likely candidate for see whose bishop usually ends up being a cardinal.
ORIGINAL POST: Michael Sean Winters over at NCR has claimed in July 14 blog post that the embattled archbishop of Philadelphia, Cardinal Justin Rigali, could soon find himself out of a job to be replaced by one of four current bishops.
Who knows if anything will come of it, but the past six months have been bruising for the church of Philadelphia--by which I mean the people of God there who have to put up with such poor leadership on sex abuse that it may have descended to the criminal. If Rigali goes it will be good news on two fronts: first, that a bishop who failed so egregiously to ensure that his diocese followed its own guidelines regarding sex abuse allegations actually gets the boot; and second, Rome is taking more seriously demands from the church--again, I mean the people of God--to relieve them of such incompetent leadership.
I wrote in my August column that Rigali would manage to survive; I would be happy to be wrong on that count--and delighted if Bishop Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, would follow Rigali out the door.
Related: Bishops could learn from politicians who resign
The word from Rome: Bishops, prepare your sex abuse guidelines
Yet another new wrinkle in clergy sex abuse
The buck stops where? Sex abuse and the bishops
Posted in: In preview mode
Another Protecting Bishop for Philly
By Anonymous (not verified) on Monday, July 18, 2011(COMMENT HAS BEEN EDITED. PLEASE REVIEW THE COMMENT POLICY FOR MORE INFORMATION.)
As an Irish-American Philly native whose family still lives there I can only sigh and hope it doesn't develop into puking my guts. The leadership of the Church from the pope on down is dedicated to one thing, preserving an ancient dictitorial power. Some of my Philly relatives are Retro "orthodox" Catholics. They'll love Chaput. To the rest he won't matter. They already left the Church.
Retro Pervert
By Jerry D (not verified) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011Does the above post calling Bishop Chaput a retro pervert meets the standard of civil and respective dialouge?
Please don't remove the post. I bet person and many people who accuse the Right of being hateful have a lack of self examination of to realize their own hate because they justify it since they believe conservatives are EVIL.
It should be noted the secular press noted Chaput has a strong record on dealing with abuse with the article "Chaput has Acted Swiftly on Abuse", countering the hateful stereotype made by the above poster.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110719_Chaput_has_acted_swiftly_on_c...
Read my writing again
By Anonymous (not verified) on Tuesday, July 19, 2011I didn't call the bishop a pervert. I called him another pervert protecting bishop meaning another bishop who protected perverts as in priests who rape and sexually abuse children.
Sorry if you misunderstood that.
More Slander
By Jerry D (not verified) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011I took the words "retro pervert" directly from your post, and the reference was clearly to the Bishop.
More importantly, you still should be apologizing for libeling Chaput as a "pervert protecting bishop" when Chaput has an excellect record of dealing with abuse according to the article I linked.
Finally, there is no evidence that the more traditional bishops (who you call "retros" are more likely to be protecting perverts than liberal bishops. That is another form of slander you are committing.
Give me your record of him calling the cops on predator priests
By Anonymous (not verified) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011Meanwhile I'll look it up.
I know that conservative and less conservative bishops all covered up clergy sex abuse pretty much equally. It was universal throughout the Church because it was ordered by the Vatican as the latest damning report in Ireland proves.
No bishop including Chaput did what any citizen should do after discovering evidence of child abuse, call the cops. By not calling the cops he protected predator priests.
That Chaput is a Retro is beyond question. That he protected predator (I don't think the moderators like the other "p" word I used) priests is also beyond question. So my calling him a "Retro" and "P-word Protecting" bishop is accurate. I was not calling him a P-word. I was calling him a Retro bishop who protected P-words by not turning them over to the police.
The record? and Pejoratives
By Jerry D (not verified) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011I linked an article saying Chaput did call the police on a suspect, and your still asking me for proof. What do you want?
You make the charge "Chaput protected predator... priests is also beyond question" without support and put the onus on me to prove otherwise. Why don't you put your name on the internet: then we can charge you are a molestor and put the onus on you to prove otherwise!
For all of human history every civilization defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Then 1960's leftists invent same sex marriage and use pejoratives such as "retro" to dehumanize anyone who dares to speak a different opinion.
As far as "pervert": if there is a priest or anyone else is convicted of molesting a child, I believe the monitors are fine with the use of the word. I doubt they would have removed your calling Chaput a retro pervert unless I called it out (credit the editors for at least responding).
Calling people "retros" also violates the policy of repectful dialouge.
It's encouraging that he called the cops on a predator priest
By Anonymous (not verified) on Friday, July 22, 2011Hopefully he'll do the same thing in Philly.
It's discouraging that he fought tooth and nail like all his brother bishops against loosening statute of limitations laws for adult victims of childhood sex abuse. He also acted to expose them and deny their anonymity something I suspect you approve of.
If he's the bishop to fire and report to the police every single priest who ever abused a kid in Philly, great, he's got his work cut out for him.
If he thinks he can bend Philly to his conservative will like he did Denver he may have a more difficult job. Archbishop Dolan is discovering that New York City is a lot different than Milwaukee. Chaput will discover that Philly is a lot different than Denver.
Philly is a tough town. The joke is that William Penn's City of Brotherly Love is now The City of Brotherly Shove. Non-New Yorkers have a better idea of what New York is like from all the movies set there. Non-Philadelphians have very little idea of what Philly is like Rocky not-withstanding. If Chaput thinks he can come in from outside and make people heel and obey he will be surprized. He is known for being tough and tough is good in Philly. He is not known for being pastoral and Philly needs a lot of pastoral now. Philly Catholics are furious. My "orthodox" cousin with nine kids who never had any time for anything critical of the Church now says about the abuse and cover up, "I hear you, I understand, I have issues myself". For someone like him to say that means he's been kicked where it hurts.
Philly is more conservative than New York but not as conservative as Chaput. If he tries being too much of a kick @$$ Philly will kick him back.
Bad News
By Amadan (not verified) on Monday, July 18, 2011He endorsed sodomy within marriage in Christopher West's book and elevated him out of obscurity.
In Denver, he has allowed a diocesan priest to celebrate gay marriages for Dignity albeit, in protestant churches.
Can't we just have Pfleger? No one thinks he's orthodox
Scrupulosity
By Jerry D (not verified) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011So what Bishop satisfies you?
Google Chaput and you'll find his name slandered on numerous websites as a "hater" since he opposes same sex marriage with the majority of Americans.
Good for Chaput agreeing with the vast majority of conservatives that there is nothing wrong with [filtered word] as part of foreplay during lovemaking. If its not your cup of tea, fine. However, scrupulosity is not a good thing.
http://www.catholicspiritualdirection.org/scrupulosity.html
Nothing wrong
By Jerry D (not verified) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011Your filtering software shot down my comment when it removed the word I described as "nothing wrong" It gave me a laugh.
For those who can't figure it out, the euphamism is "oral stimulation"
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