Editor’s Note: Yes, the same Cardinal Grech, who yesterday, wrote to all the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church yesterday, telling them they have to make their dioceses more Synodal and listening, was intimately involved in letting 2 Dominican nuns who were guilty of decades of abuse of orphans, off the hook without any punishment and not even a personalized apology addressed to each victim! — Evidently Cardinal Grech’s idea of a “Church that listens” and a “Church which reaches out to the peripheries” does not include the victims of lesbian abuse.
The above story is 14 months old, but still timely to show just how sincere of a man Grech is.
Note well, even if the perps were no longer under his authority, he could have introduced a case at the Roma Rota, here at Rome, or in the Congregation for Religious, demanding punishments for each perp, and monetary remuneration for the victims. Instead, he “apologized” for something he did not do, and abandoned the victims. If already dead, the perps can still be publicly condemned, and their mortal remains can be ordered to be removed from Church grounds and from receiving any honors. If still alive, a local Bishop can nevertheless impose penalities such as excommunication, anathema and other such strictures to prevent them remaining in his Diocese and to warn all the faithful not to have any dealings with them. And he could always demand of the Convent, in his own diocese, to which they belonged, that the entire community do a public act of penance and apology in the presence of the victims for the sins of their fellow sisters, whether dead or living elsewhere.
Christ Jesus established the hierarchy to be the servants and guardians of His little ones, His flock. Thus, a Bishop should always be the advocate of victims and seek to punish abusers to the maximum extent. And that includes being always willing to personally meet with each victim.