Welcome to Tuesday. On the first day of their annual meeting, several U.S. bishops raise questions about accountability and transparency related to the Vatican report on former cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Former Newark seminarians during McCarrick's tenure there as archbishop say the Vatican report validated their experiences.
For more than two years — and over the course of three semiannual meetings — the U.S. Catholic bishops awaited the Vatican's release of its report on former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who in 2019 was removed from the priesthood by Pope Francis after revelations of his serial abuse of minors and seminarians.
The U.S. bishops kicked off their virtual meeting yesterday where discussions of the McCarrick report took center stage — if only for 45 minutes.
More than a dozen U.S. bishops spoke during the open session about the report, raising questions prompted that included concerns about the process for selecting bishops, unanswered questions about McCarrick's finances, the psychological and sexual health of priests and bishops, and both the progress and remaining challenges of transparency and accountability.
The bishops' earlier private discussion of the report in executive session lasted 90 minutes, but the public comments were just under half of that time.
Read more of the story here.
More background:
- NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters says the first day of the U.S. bishops' conference meeting showed that the bishops are unwilling to speak freely, especially when it comes to being candid about the involvement of certain bishops in the McCarrick report.
- Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill, a priest of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, is the new general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The bishops also voted on chairmen-elect for seven committees and seven seats on the board of directors of Catholic Relief Services.
- Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the U.S. papal nuncio, told the U.S. bishops that "as bishops, we have a special responsibility to lead by example, demonstrating what it means to be a neighbor."
- All of NCR's coverage of the U.S. bishops' conference fall assembly can be found here.
While some reacted with shock to a report from the Vatican detailing how church officials ignored former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's long history of sexual abuse, one group was not surprised.
Those who went through seminary for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, during McCarrick's tenure as archbishop from 1986 to 2000 already knew the story, with the Vatican report a kind of "imprimatur" validating their experiences.
Bob Hoatson remembers that as summer weekends approached, "Uncle Ted," as McCarrick called himself, would send out invitations to a select crew of students. They would number just beyond the number of beds available at McCarrick's New Jersey beach house. McCarrick, according to the report, would then invite a seminarian to share a bed with him.
"Everybody knew about McCarrick, about Uncle Ted and the 'nephews' he had," Hoatson told NCR.
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More background:
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Final thoughts
Every Tuesday and Thursday, we post a new Francis comic strip. Throughout the week, we also post stories about Pope Francis' speeches, letters and audiences. You can sign up to receive The Francis Chronicles, a twice-weekly email with the latest Francis news, here.
Until Wednesday,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Production/Online Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
