Who is this guy?
Australia’s CathNews cites “fury” as it links The Tablet. One blogger (who persists in calling bishops “Msgr”) seems to be happy about it.
If I follow the whole line of reasoning … the previous archbishop was sympathetic to conservative concerns. So any financial mismanagement can be overlooked as “tradition.” The media hated the prevoius prelate and liked the new.
So who knows? Archbishop Bezák could be a charmer. Protests and outrage have followed the travails of molesters and scammers–until they were outed.
I have greatly sinned,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done and in what I have failed to do
Many are praising Pope Benedict for finally pulling the trigger. But he’s going to have to do this with bishops convicted (not just suspected) of personnel blunders, not just (suspected, but unproven) financial mismanagement and inappropriate dialogue. If not, it’s going to go much worse if we get to the point of bishops like Robert Finn being convicted of child endangerment.
13 July 2012 at 12:45 pm
John Allen’s latest article in the National Catholic Reporter deals with the sacking of Abp Bezak (the second half of the article). From what he recounts there, it looks as if this story will have legs and the Vatican will end up with egg on its face for sacking a new archbishop who was trying to clean up the financial improprieties of his predecessor.
13 July 2012 at 3:05 pm
Just egg? This would be horrific for the Vatican on two fronts: the management of bishops and financial transparency. I can think of few worse scandals, except where my imagination doesn’t want to go.
13 July 2012 at 6:22 pm
I can’t think of another English-language metaphor (proverb?) at the moment. There’s probably an appropriate one in German that involves excrement.
Given the suspicions John Allen’s article relates about former-Abp Sokol turning to his friends in the Vatican to get rid of Abp Bezak for him, it may turn out to be another Maciel-like story. Probably not (thankfully!) on the scale of Maciel, but if the money was being misappropriated, then where was it being spent? Lovers, mistresses, children? Part of Maciel’s “success” and longevity was that he’d essentially paid off people in the Vatican (notably Cdl Sodano) who acted in support of him when the time came.
Maybe this could be looked at as if it were another instance of the bishops/hierarchy (“the protector”) being successfully groomed by the abuser? In this analogy the abuser (the previous bishop, Abp Sokol) already has access to the victim (the something for which the money is needed) but needs the cooperation and protection of those over him. The analogy isn’t perfect.
Finally, I’d note that the former archbishop, Abp Sokol, had been in office for 20 years. This would presumably make him one of the “orthodox” bishops whom JPII was eager to have appointed. Perhaps there should be a general examination of the JPII bishops?
17 July 2012 at 8:56 pm
I have friends in Slovakia who say this is like a return to communism; punishment without giving reasons; silence by those who removed Bezak and Bezak under orders to remain silent; it all smacks of Omerta…
1 August 2012 at 12:36 pm
It seems we are approching one of the darkest periods in church history. I too have fríends in Slovakia who are deeply shocked.