the catholic church rushing towards irrelevancy

Nun Excommunicated After Saving a Mother's Life With Abortion



Church Stands by Decision to Kick Out Sister Margaret McBride After She Authorized an Emergency Abortion to Save a Woman's Life



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By DAN HARRIS and CLAUDIA MORALES

June 1, 2010



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Sister Margaret McBride was forced to make a decision between her faith and a woman's life last year, when a 27-year-old mother of four rushed into St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix only 11 weeks pregnant.

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Nun advises woman to seek abortion for health and church takes action.



"I think [McBride] prayed and prayed and I'm sure that this weighed on her like a ton of bricks. This was not an easy decision for her," says her long-time friend Mary Jo Macdonald.
As a key member of the hospital's ethics board, McBride gathered with doctors in November of 2009 to discuss the young woman's fate.
The mother was suffering from pulmonary hypertension, an illness the doctors believed would likely kill her and, as a result, her unborn child, if she did not abort the pregnancy.
In the end, McBride chose to save the young woman's life by agreeing to authorize an emergency abortion, a decision that has now forced her out of a job and the Catholic Church.
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Despite being described as "saintly," "courageous," and the "moral conscience" of the Catholic hospital, McBride was excommunicated from the Catholic Church by Phoenix Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted for supporting the abortion.
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"An unborn child is not a disease ... the end does not justify the means," Olmsted said in a statment issued to a the Arizona Republic newspaper this past May.
Hospital officials defended McBride's actions and released a statement saying, "In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother's life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy."
Although many medical ethicists say it was the right decision, the hospital confirmed McBride has been removed from her position as senior administrator and reassigned.
Critics are arguing McBride's punishment is a double standard. Many are pointing out that it has often taken years for priests who sexually abuse children to be even reprimanded, let alone excommunicated.

The last part of the article is dead on.
If only the church would take such swift action with all of the priests that molest children. Where was their higher moral ground then?

04:14 PM ET




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Vatican set to publish new rules on abuse

The Catholic Church on Thursday is expected to release its new rules to try to prevent clergy from abusing children, a source close to the Vatican told CNN.
The rules will be aimed more at firming up existing practices, said the source, who asked not to be named because the source was talking about the regulations before they are made public.
The Vatican will add the possession of child pornography to the list of most serious crimes, declare the abuse of any mentally retarded person to be as bad as the abuse of children, and double the statute of limitations on the Vatican's prosecution of suspected abuse.
The Vatican also plans to make it a major crime against the church to ordain a woman as a priest, the source said.
Some critics of the Catholic Church have said that having women in the hierarchy could have helped prevent clerical child abuse. It is not clear if the hardening of the Vatican's longstanding line against women priests is related to the accusation.
The new rules on child abuse are a response to accusations against priests across Europe and the United States in the past several years, and come not long, in Vatican terms, after the last set of such rules was issued in 2001.
Pope Benedict XVI was a key in drafting the 2001 rules, when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
The source said the new rules were designed primarily to set down in canon law what the church already practices.
They deal only with how the church handles allegations of misbehavior by clergy, the source said, explaining that it did not change existing Vatican policy of also reporting suspected child abuse to civil authorities.
Abuse victims are already saying the changes don't go far enough.
"There needs to be massive overhaul, not mere tweaking,of how the church
deals with abuse and cover-up," said Barbara Dorris, of the Survivors Network
of those Abused by Priests.
"As long as bishops can ignore and conceal child sex crimes without punishment, they'll keep ignoring and concealing child sex crimes," she said last week, responding to media reports about what the new guidelines would say.
"The focus needs to be on catching predators more quickly, involving secular law enforcement, and preventing recklessness and deceit by bishops, who can and should take many steps to protect the vulnerable long before the defrocking process begins," she said.
Thousands of people have come forward in the United States, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and the pope's native Germany to say they were abused as children by Catholic clergy.
The crisis has particularly shocked deeply Catholic Ireland, where three government-backed investigations have uncovered physical and sexual abuse stretching back decades.
Police in Belgium recenty raided the headquarters of the Catholic Church there, and later spent 10 hours questioning the cardinal who used to head the Belgian Catholic Church.
The pope has repeatedly said the Vatican will seek justice for victims.
Last month he said the church must promise "to do everything possible" to ensure that the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests "will never occur again."
Benedict said the church must "insistently beg forgiveness from God" and from victims for the sexual abuse committed by Catholic priests. He also said priests must be more thoroughly vetted before joining the ministry.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/14/vatican-set-to-publish-new-rules-on-abuse/?hpt=T2

Does anyone, besides me, think the church missed the boat on this one again. It will be a crime against the church to ordaine a woman.......

Could someone help me with how that helps address a legacy of sex abuse crimes by male priests against children and a culture extending to the highest levels in the church that elected to cover these crimes up.

Here would be my proposal.
1] Like the Boy Scouts of America they need two deep leadership with children. This means no adult is ever alone with a child. There must be at least 2 adults present. It is not necessary for the services that the church provides that an adult be alone with a child. If a child needs the concil of a priest privately [and there are really very few circumstances where they would]... they can talk quietly at a table in view of another adult. This would protect not only the child but would protect the clergy from false accusations as well.
2] All allegations of abuse are reported to local law enforcement. The church has demonstarted time and time again that they cannot conduct these kind of investigations internally and really they should not have to. The police are trained to investigate these crimes. Let the police investigate. Priests are suspended [with pay] or moved to other duties where they do not have contact with children pending the outcome of the investigation. The church extends any assistance to law enforcement that they need while conducting the investigation and assists with prosecution of offenders.
3] Anyone in a supervisory capacity that does not follow the new policies is relieved of their duties.
That took me maybe 5 min to compose while I am multi tasking here at my desk. All fixed. The issue is being made more complex than it really is.