Posts Tagged church law
Cardinal Burke presides over trial investigating Guam archbishop / Catholic News Service
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on February 17, 2017
Cardinal Raymond Burke, a church law expert and former head of the Vatican’s highest court, arrived in Guam Feb. 15 as the presiding judge in a church trial investigating allegations of sexual abuse leveled against Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Agana.
“The Vatican press office confirmed a ‘tribunal of the first instance’ was constituted by the Vatican Oct. 5 and its presiding judge is Cardinal Burke. Four other judges, all of whom are bishops, also were appointed, the press office said.”
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic New Service, in National Catholic Reporter — Read more …
Pope Francis already has the power and authority necessary to hold bishops and religious major superiors accountable / Catholic Whistleblowers
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Voice of the Faithful on February 12, 2015
Catholic Whistleblowers appreciates the efforts of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors to hold accountable those bishops and religious major superiors who have failed to deal with priests who have sexually abused minors. We especially commend the two members of the Commission who are victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse, Irishwoman Marie Collins and Englishman Peter Saunders, for their strong and publicly stated commitment to truth, justice, and healing.
“Yet, we also note that the Commission does not need to reinvent the wheel. The Code of Canon Law already provides the way for Pope Francis to deal with these bishops and religious superiors.
“Indeed, the pope has power and authority over all of the Church which he is always able to exercise freely (cc. 331, 333, §1 and 590, §1). And nothing in Church law prohibits the application of Church law by the pope regarding bishops and religious superiors.”
By Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee — Click here to read the rest of this statement.
Francis codifies pope’s ability to fire bishops / National Catholic Reporter
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Pope Francis, Voice of the Faithful on November 6, 2014
Pope Francis has codified his ability to effectively fire Catholic bishops, saying that in some circumstances, he ‘can consider it necessary’ to ask them to resign their offices.
“The move, which the Vatican announced Wednesday (Nov. 5), seems to be an attempt by Francis to clear up any ambiguity about the pontiff’s power to replace prelates around the world. While Francis and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, have effectively removed bishops in the past, their power to do so was not previously so explicit in the church’s laws.
“Wednesday’s change comes in a short edict approved Monday (Nov. 3) by Francis at the request of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state. Composed of seven short articles, the edict addresses the resignation of diocesan bishops and papal appointees.”
By Joshua J. McElwee, National Catholic Reporter — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Vatican revising canon law on abuse penalties, cardinal says / Catholic News Service
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Clergy Sexual Abuse, Vatican, Voice of the Faithful on July 24, 2014
Church law has procedures and penalties for effectively dealing with allegations of clerical sexual abuse, but the Vatican is working to revise a section of the Code of Canon Law to make those norms and procedures clearer and, therefore, more effective, said the president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.
“‘We want to make this delicate material more accessible, more understandable and easier for bishops to apply,’ Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, council president, told the Vatican newspaper …
“If a bishop does not react by imposing a punishment on a priest guilty of the crime of sexual abuse, he said, ‘in some way that would be, or would seem to be, consenting to the evil committed. A negative act necessarily must be condemned; it requires a reaction.’”
By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Catholic diocese upends custom on homilies / Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Posted by Voice of the Faithful in Catholic Bishops, Clericalism, Voice of the Faithful on July 22, 2014
For the better part of 40 years in churches across the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, clergy ceded the floor to laypeople for the delivery of the homily — the sermon that follows the reading of the Gospel at Mass.
“The practice, which dated to the mid-1970s and was simultaneously derided by the faithful for running afoul of church law and praised for its inclusiveness, has come to an end.”
By David Andreatta, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle — Click here to read the rest of this story.
Voice of the Faithful
A lay movement for governance reform in the Roman Catholic Church, responding to the clergy sexual abuse scandal and supporting survivors.
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