VIDEO – 23 Aug – Bp. Morlino with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN

Raymond Arroyo interviewed Most Rev. Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of Madison.  It originally aired on EWTN’s The World Over on Thursday 23 August.

 

In another segment, Arroyo interviewed Bill Donohue of The Catholic League.

He said something that struck me.

He said that Dioceses should NOT cooperate with state AGs unless… unless… the AG is also going to put the same spotlight on PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

That is something that bishops ought to think about.

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12 Comments

  1. Nightcrawler says:

    I work in California public schools. The major liability carrier in the state, SELF (Schools Excess Liability Fund) is in serious financial trouble due to the large number of child molestation cases that are being settled. We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars. You can’t find any of this stuff in the newspapers, but it is a very serious issue. Our premiums continue to increase which pulls funds from student learning opportunities. But in the Golden State, child molestation cases have become part of the norm.

  2. veritas vincit says:

    While I don’t disagree with Bishop Morlino on cooperating with state AGs, I think that would be a public relations disaster for any bishop to make that insistence. At the present, the moral authority of most bishops to the public is at an alltime low.

  3. pbnelson says:

    He said that Dioceses should NOT cooperate with state AGs unless… unless… the AG is also going to put the same spotlight on PUBLIC SCHOOLS. That is something that bishops ought to think about.

    I wholeheartedly agree the public schools should be investigated . But the AG’s are doing the Church a favor, and we should welcome their investigations. We should thank God for their help in ridding our Church of filth. If the Church won’t clean her own house, then God will use secular powers. There’s no need to put conditions on them.

  4. Kevin says:

    One less child molested, or one less predator free is always a good. We should be delighted that the AG wants to investigate, whatever his ulterior motives.

    Am I being cynical in thinking the pending investigation in St. Louis is ‘cos Raymond Cardinal Burke’s appearance on last week’s World over ruffled a few feathers.
    Are they going after him? Like they are with Cardinal Pell.

  5. Southern Catholic says:

    I am concerned with the notion that every state should investigate Dioceses whether or not a crime has been committed. If there is evidence that a Bishop covered up the crime of a priest, then yes there should be an investigation into the bishop and/or the diocese. If there is not evidence of crimes ever being committed, should the diocese be investigated? Do the people realize that you are giving the state license to assume guilty until proven innocent? I would hate to give the state the power to come in and look at a church’s records whenever they felt like it.

    The laity have the power to report crimes, and they should report the crimes of bishops and priest to the proper authorities. We shouldn’t give the authorities that power to investigate with out the evidence of crimes committed, because one day that power could be turned on you.

  6. Giuseppe says:

    If I were a bishop, I’d ask a district attorney or an attorney general to sit in my chancery and go through every record of complaints of abuse in the last 50 years and have at it. I’d then release all documents about prior cover-ups.

    The only way for a bishop to protect the good priests is to rid the diocese of the bad ones and correct the mistakes of his predecessors.

    The DA or AG is the bishop’s friend.

  7. Kathleen10 says:

    We need AG’s to do an investigation in every state. Hopefully AG Sessions will consider RICO. I intend on asking both to do what they can.

    Bill Donahue’s ongoing defense of the maneuvering by the bishops is altogether annoying at this point. He has often complained that the church receives unfair treatment and that public schools are “worse” and are left uninvestigated seems now an intended distraction away from the crimes of the church. [No. It isn’t. Donogue was for an investigation of chanceries, etc., but he wanted the other investigations ALSO.] Any place where children are being abused should be investigated, but that does not at all take away from what is going on in the church. For one thing, we once believed there was a sacred trust and standard of behavior in the church that did not include sodomizing boys nor covering it up. The standard is higher in fact than for a school. The church now looks more like an institutionalized pederasty ring than a church at this time. I’m not saying it is, I’m saying it looks like that. We’re waiting for the men who run it to disprove that. Still waiting…
    Mr. Donahue also is trying to say these are all dated crimes, they happened in the past, the way past, and most of the perps are dead. Is he kidding? [He not wrong. In that PA report that is precisely the case.] He knows full well it takes many years for many sexual abuse victims to speak up, due to the shame and the trauma. There is no reason to believe there are not many, many victims out there, all around us in fact, but they have just not found their voice yet, or reason. All evidence is, boys and young men are being victimized today.
    He is apparently getting some thanks from bishops and some Catholics. It’s natural to want this surreal situation to be explained away, but a church that won’t take full responsibility for it’s actions and men who continue to deny it or, stunningly, try to put responsibility for it on the laity, are only avoiding the full and total responsibility which is THEIRS, and theirs alone. [That’s quite a generalization. Thanks for sweeping us all together into your dustbin.] They may think it better to keep doing that and evading responsibility (and real solutions) but that will only stretch out the decline that is very likely to come, because many Catholics have had enough.

  8. SanSan says:

    God Bless this Holy Shepherd. This is what the Truth sounds like. Praying that more good Shepherds follow suit.

  9. Lepanto ! says:

    That Arroyo continues to associate with and frankly, “parade” Donahue, makes Arroyo and EWTN further suspect then before. Donahue provides cover for the princes of the Church more often then not over the years. Pathetic.

    The “professional” Catholics increasingly give the good priests and hierarchy a bad name.

    Good luck with fundraising going forward – you’re going to need it!

  10. Hidden One says:

    One thing that I appreciate about Bishop Morlino’s answers in this interview is that he was calm. He considered what was said to him, clearly had reflected on these issues in advance, and was also continuing his reflecting during the interview. His words were not ruled by strong emotions. He set a good example for the rest of us, I think, as we speak and write about the various scandals in the Church.

  11. Lurker 59 says:

    We need more bishops like his Excellency.

    Priests should be held to a higher standard than school teachers. That there are similar problems within public education does not and cannot diminish the existence of those issues within the Church hierarchy. I also have not heard of the issues within public education also entailing the intentional recruiting and promoting of homosexuals abusers, the intentional excusing of the behavior of homosexual abusers, and the intentional protecting of homosexual abusers by those in top positions of authority as well as the intentional engaging in homosexual abuse by the authorities themselves.

    A good bishop is not necessarily surrounded by a good chancery nor a good presbytery council. They can work to undercut him and stymie his efforts. It is part of why Pope Benedict XVI resigned. If he couldn’t fix the problem….

    Here is how to start to fix the problem — Defrock Mr. McCarrick and then instruct, under religious obedience, all priests so abused to report the abuse to the State, and let the State investigate and uncover this mess. Ecclesially adjudicate and defrock those uncovered abusers and turn them over to the State for criminal charges. Start ripping out the cabal.

  12. Pingback: Bp. Morlino @MadisonDiocese on #TheViganòTestimony - "the criteria for credible allegations are more than fulfilled" | Fr. Z's BlogFr. Z's Blog

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