December 13, 2012       David Timbs (Melbourne)    David's previous articles 

When Bishops lose their moral authority

Yesterday I read an article published in an American Catholic website which saddened me greatly for a number of reasons. The article was about the Miami Episcopal Conference making a last minute plea to Florida ’s Governor to commute the death sentence of a convicted mass murderer. The man, Manuel Pardo jr, while serving as a policeman had murdered nine people he considered ‘filth’ and not worthy of life. Allegedly, they had been involved in the drug trade. After nearly three decades of his life spent on death row, Manuel Pardo was finally executed by lethal injection just after 6.00 pm on December 11.  It was  tragedy enough that justice by the ‘eye for an eye’ principle is still being administered but it did something for Florida ’s statistics. After Texas , Virginia and Oklahoma , that State is number four on the lawful homicide list!

Another reason for sadness is the fact that Florida ’s Catholic bishops who pleaded so passionately and with so much conviction for the State to spare Pardo’s life stand astride moral fault lines. They are fundamentally compromised in their ability to teach anything of substance anymore and expect people to listen.

Archbishop Favalora of Miami was forced by the Vatican to retire early in April 2011. He had caused massive scandal for alleged sexually ambiguous behaviour. Under his watch, the Archdiocese has also had to pay out over US$26m in compensation in numerous clerical sexual abuse claims. To compound these woes, the Church is facing the ongoing inflation of clerical sexual scandals on an international scale. Millions of Catholics worldwide have become bewildered, disillusioned, angry and cynical. The exact number of these who have dissociated themselves from the Church and faith practice will probably never be known with certainty. The damage is catastrophic and may take generations to repair, if ever.

Catholics have had enough. Non-Catholics along with them also find Church governance and administration grossly hypocritical and lacking any kind of credibility or moral authority. For both groups the Catholic Church has lost any claim to occupy the high ethical ground anymore. This is not just an American story either. The Catholic Church in other places throughout the world has all too often placed institutional honour and face ahead of its Gospel obligation to its children and other vulnerable ones. No wonder that when it moralises on other issues no one wants to listen.

A caution is needed here: in the comments section of the first linked item one can see the level of popular cynicism and the sheer ferocity of anger and outrage directed against the Church. Many comments are foul and lack any redeeming qualities. The balanced ones are few and are obvious stand-outs. [1]

[1] For the article on the Bishops’ appeal on behalf of Pardo in the Orlando Sentinel, click here. For a related article published by The Jacksonville Observer, click here. When the local Bishops resist their obligations under civil law, governments have been forced to act and to do so decisively. The Government of the Republic of Ireland has done it. In Australia , the State Governments of Victoria and New South Wales have intervened and just recently, the Federal Government has announced a Royal Commission to inquire into sexual abuse in all institutions with the duty of care. Fortunately, the Australian Bishops are wisely setting up their own professional Council to represent the Church in this Commission which has a level of legal authority second only to the Federal Parliament. See the ACBC website and click on Royal Commission links.

David Timbs writes from Melbourne , Victoria , Australia .