Colkoch on target re prisoner Lynn- READ! (Main Forum)

It has always seemed to me that the abuse crisis got so out of hand precisely because the clerical system doe not believe laity are peers or that civil society has a right or is competent to address criminal clergy. The theology behind the system was designed to convince laity of the same 'truth.)

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Hear, hear.

Let us light a candle and say to the dark, we beg to differ

And this is a knockout too:

At the end of his comment Fr Flynn makes the same point I have been making on this blog for over four years. If the Eucharist is the summit of Catholic existence, then it's beyond time our leadership put some money where their mouth is because one thing the abuse crisis has served to underscore is that the Sacrament of Ordination trumps the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Ordination is the pinnacle of Catholic expression, not the Eucharist. It is the priesthood which will be protected at all costs, not the Eucharist.
Until that changes, nothing else in Catholicism can be reformed.

Marian

who is hoping for a new way to be church

Which has the top priority in the RCC -- Ordination or Eucharist??

We see Hierarchs hobnobbing with the wealthy 1%, yards of lacy vestments, silky magna cappas, episcopal mansions when millions are losing their homes & jobs, etc...

We see closed parish churches with Eucharistic Adoration for the masses, instead of vigorous legions of Lay Ministers bringing Communion to shutins, elderly & parish gatherings!!

Yet we see no Hierarchs fired in disgrace because they wasted over $3 BILLION DOLLARS IN COVERING UP CSA JUST IN THE USA, not to mention over €2 BILLION EUROS IN EUROPE & still counting!!

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK IS TOPS in their eyes??

That is the essence of revenge, not justice. Justice involves not just seeing that the guilty are punished, but is also concerned to ensure that offenders are not treated too harshly, that the emphasis is on helping them to rehabilitate rather than ensuring that they suffer, and above all, justice never loses sight of the fact that the offender is a fellow human being, no matter what they have done.

I agree with all that, Cathy, but I think there is another element of the justice system that you have omitted, and that is deterrence.

Monsignor Lynn probably does not need all that much "rehabilitation". After all, so far as we know, he lived an exemplary life other than covering up pedophiles, and he did that, as you point out - but in less harsh terms than that of Fr. Flynn - that he was part of a corrupt system that goes right to the very top of the Catholic Church, indeed to Pope Benedict XVI personally - indeed, he more than most. lynn was a "yes man", and as I have pointed out many times, he was acting on the directions of Josef Ratzinger and Karol Wojtyla.

What needs to be shown to Church leaders is that three years jail is what they can expect if they continue with this sort of thing. And in that context, I don't think the sentence is too harsh.

But it is important for another reason: all religions in a democratic society must accept that they are not above the law, and that they cannot impose their own Sharia type law in defiance of the civil law. That is precisely what the Catholic Church did with its Canon Law. This is the message of this sentence.

That is not to say that civil laws are perfect or that there are no circumstances where there should be civil disobedience. But the requirement of secrecy imposed by Canon Law that prevented reporting to the police in defiance of the criminal law is not one of them.

Cathy

I share your concern about the tenor of Fr Flynn's comments.

Sexual abuse of children is such an emotive issue. However I just don't think it helps much to label and demonise people.

On a day to day basis in prisons it may be that prison guards in dealing with an inmate might call someone " Prisoner Smith ".

However for someone who is both a priest and a psychologist to publicly use the labels "convict" "prisoner " ,"inmate " is such a demeaning way is both unprofessional and uncharitable.

Ditto his labelling of Mons Lynn as "cowardly" "self serving" "sold his manhood and his soul"

Monsignor Lynn has offended in a most serious way.He has been found guilty by a jury and sentenced by a court.Prison may well be a difficult experience for him.Whether his setence is too 'harsh' will be determined by another court on appeal

However Monsignor Lynn is not a monster with horns pitchfork and tail.He is still a human being who is still entitled to be treated with some degree of dignity.He may well have done many good things in his life.

I much preferrred the language of the prosecuting District Attorney and sentencing judge which I posted previously :

From the prosecution
Assistant Patrick Attorney Patrick Blessington said Lynn may have been a good priest, but he was a "criminal" secretary for clergy.

"Of course he did good. Every priest does good," Blessington told the judge. "There is a time for mercy and a time for justice. This is a time for justice. How many opportunities did that defendant have to show victims mercy?"

Citing letters sent to the judge, Blessington said Lynn had a front-row seat to the horrors of clergy-sex abuse when he met with dozens of victims who were raped or fondled as children and spent years battling addiction, depression, suicidal thoughts and the inability to form or maintain relationships.

"He studied it, he saw it, but most importantly, he ignored it," Blessington said.

From the sentencing Judge :

Sarmina noted the positive portrait of Lynn that emerged in hundreds of letters she received since his June conviction on a single child-endangerment charge. "It's not that hard to be good when you don't have to make the tough choices that challenge your values to the core," she said.

"Since he was going to obey his bishop, he had to erect a wall from hearing their pain and turmoil," she said.

Like Brian I liked colkoch's final comment that ordination was the pinnacle of Catholic expression not the Eucharist.

Maitland