Open letter to the US Catholic bishops: It's over

There are applicable parallels with the Church in Canada - the timing and very title of the recent CCCB publication, "Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse: A Call to the Catholic Faithful in Canada for Healing, Reconciliation, and Transformation" being an illustrative case in point. Who do non-theologically trained Catholic lay people think this is addressed to when they read "A Call to the Catholic Faithful"? Certainly not to the bishops themselves nor even the clergy, even if the bishops and clergy do come under its purview.

Cardinal Ouellet

As another case for Canada, I think of the then Archbishop of Quebec (the illustrious Marc Armand Ouellet PSS) who in 2010 fought all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada to have the case against Fr. Lachance dropped, not because he was innocent, but because Quebec's equivalent of a statute of limitations had expired (Shirley Christensen, Appellant and Roman Catholic Archbishop of Québec and Paul-Henri Lachance, Respondents). When the Supreme Court decided that it should go back to a lower court for more evidence, the Archbishop caved in and came to an out of court settlement.

I think there is much food for thought in this open letter even if we are not Americans. "Protecting Minors" states: "... in addition to serving the demands of justice and ensuring public safety, the Church requires that offenders make amends for the harm they inflicted and scandal they caused. In seeking forgiveness, they are asked to express sorrow and contrition and to undertake appropriate acts of penance."

So much language focuses on those who directly committed sexual abuse. It seems patently clear to me that the bishops still cannot acknowledge that they themselves, and fellow priests, have participated in this sin by protecting and covering up for their fellow clerics (clericalism), thereby enabling them and others to continue unabated. The reference in the letter to Cupich is apt: Bishops must "cede authority," he said, to allow for greater accountability to outside authority. He also said that "privilege, power and protection of a clerical culture" have to be "eradicated from the life of the church" or "everything else is a sideshow."