You're Fired, My Son

You've heard of priests being removed from active ministry due to substantiated allegations of sex abuse. It turns out that only His Holiness in Rome can actually kick them out of the priesthood completely.

And not all of them have filed the necessary paperwork.

There must surely be enough trauma involved in the investigation and the court trial and all the rest. Added to the abuser's burden is the requirement that he petition the Pope to be officially de-frocked.

Little wonder that many haven't gotten around to it in a timely fashion. The Chicago Archdiocese, however, has run out of patience with the procrastinators and is doing the work for them...whether they like it or not. Letters are in the mail.

It's not just the pedophiles who are clogging up the works. There are deacons who don't have the time for deaconing and have given up their privileges. A busy man might not bother with official protocol, formally telling the Catholic Church know that he's hung up his stole for good.

Then there are priests removed from active ministry because they got married. They're of the "once a priest always a priest" mindset, while the Archdiocese figures there's a limit to that particular line.

What happens if one of them were to officiate at a wedding? In the eyes of the Church, it's not a valid union. Living in sin? Bringing forth children outside of a Church-sanctioned marriage? That's a one-way ticket to hell.

And it isn't like the average Catholic could be protected from such a scenario unless the Archdiocese goes after the recalcitrant priests. After all, married Episcopalian priests can convert to Catholicism and remain clergyman...with wives. Marriage is a sacrament, after all, and far be it from the Church to make trouble when it wins a point for its side.

Booting out the clerics who believe in a married priesthood is one way to provide cover. Since no one wants the pedophiles to remain priests, the faithful would be all in favor of forced de-frocking without realizing who's getting the axe at the same time.

What has some concerned is the fact that six or seven former priests, convicted of sex abuse crimes, would be released from the retreat house in Mundelein, Illinois. No longer priests, fully laicized, but where would they go? Not to your neighborhood, you're hoping.

Laicizing the perverts would save the Archdiocese some money, but the burden would be shifted to the general public as the ex-priests would be indigent. No job, no job prospects, and no place to lay a weary head. Will they register as sex offenders wherever they end up?

Or will a forgiving Church cut them some slack, keep them under guard at the retreat house, and be satisfied that they'd found a way to slap down the anti-celibacy advocates?