Fire the Canon
Staying with the Cardinal's difficulties for one more go. (And I promise it will be my last little post on this for a while, as I can see that it hasn't set the world alight, from the paucity of comments)
The discussion seems to have started to focus on the Vatican's position on priests who sexually abuse or rape children, addressed in Canon Law number 1395. Basically, this says that pedophile priests shouldn't be considered to have really broken any canon law, and even the internal church penal system should be avoided, because there is a danger that the civil authorities could seize any documents (through the dreaded "discovery"). Compare this to the treatment of the nun who wanted to publish a book on women priests. She was effectively told that they didn't like her type round here, and was squeezed to relinquish her vows.
Earlier in the week, Bishop Willie Walsh came out and made a statement, explicitly saying that if there is a clash between Canon Law and Civil Law, then Civil Law must take precedence.
In contrast, Cardinal Connell released a statement beating around the bush, but effectively saying still holding the line for the primacy of canon law, and the right of the church investigators to have first sight of any files and to 'filter' them, deciding which should be released to the state investigators.
Frankly, given the current Minister for Justice, this isn't a sustainable position. If they want them, the state will get any files they take a fancy to. And given that the police set up a special centralised clerical sex abuse unit this week to review all their cases on the books and also to act as a central clearing house for all future complaints, I suspect that they may fancy those files sooner rather than later.
So why even bother trying to stop them from coming in the gate? The answer is sitting in Rome. The Cardinal was picked for the job from his Angel Considerations in UCD for his dedication to following the Curia line on any and all matters. That's all he has going for him at this stage.
Of course, if the Pope would pop his clogs, there might be a chance of the real source of these difficulties changing. Until then, the institutional church will keep damaging itself, and the lives of the children and adults they claim to hold as the highest priority.
1:11:55 AM 
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