You might think that the clerical sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church is fading, but just because you haven't read a news story in the past month doesn't mean it's all gone away.
Echoes of the scandal are still rattling the windows of the Vatican.
The solution?
Stop anyone from saying anything negative about the Church's hierarchy.
Or else the hammer will fall.
Father Sean Fagan ran afoul of an Irish bishop back in 2003 when he re-printed a piece he had first published in 1997. Something was said to someone at the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Father Fagan was told that his theology was wrong.
And wouldn't you know, it was Cardinal Ratzinger himself who issued the decree as the head of that very office. He's the Pope now.
Father Fagan's book, Does Morality Change?, did not toe the party line and therefore, he had to stop espousing his theory.
The man's a theologian who thinks deep thoughts. He couldn't help himself. He kept thinking. And since he's a priest, he kept preaching.
The Holy See slapped Father Fagan down but he went public with the punishment, which launched a new firestorm of controversy over the way the Vatican does things. Given that they like the old ways, and the old ways gave us secrecy, abuse and scandal, the average Catholic isn't keen on a return to the past.
So, Father Fagan has been punished again, but if a word of his penance is leaked to the media, the Vatican has vowed to defrock him.
It's the ultimate punishment for any clergyman.
And one that they rarely took when presented with a pedophile.
Is it any wonder that Catholics feel no love for their Pope when he's stubbornly refusing to open up his eyes to reality?
Anyone who keeps trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube after it's been squeezed isn't going to win anyone's heart or mind.
But then again, the Catholic Church is squeezing out members with ham-handed tactics like this one, and no one in the Vatican seems to notice that it isn't working.
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