A woman scarred by clergy sex abuse is furious that the Archdiocese of Ottawa will not tell her if or when it will seek to defrock the Catholic priest who preyed upon her as a young teenager.
Colleen Passard said she’s being “stonewalled” by the diocese in her attempts to obtain information about the status of the review of Rev. Barry McGrory. That review is the first step in the laicization process described by Canon Law, the governing code of the Catholic Church.
“Failure to strip a sexual predator of the sacred covenant of the priesthood is a collusion with darkness,” Passard charged in a letter of complaint to the diocese, shared with the Citizen.
More than four months ago, the diocese announced that it would consider initiating the process required to have McGrory removed from the priesthood.
As part of that process, Passard met in person with Rev. Christian Riesbeck, Auxilliary Bishop of Ottawa, and prepared a victim impact statement at his request.
That statement gave a detailed account of her abuse by McGrory, and concluded with a plea to church officials: “I urge you on behalf of myself, all of McGrory’s victims, and all good priests, to laicize Father Barry McGrory. It is the most merciful and compassionate action you can take. Every day that McGrory remains a priest is a shameless hypocrisy — and a mockery of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.”
According to Passard, who taped her meeting with the bishop, Riesbeck said removing McGrory from the priesthood was a top priority for the diocese. He reassured her, she said, that diocesan officials had plenty of material in the McGrory file, and that they wanted to get it to the Vatican “as soon as possible.”
Today, the diocese will only say that the McGrory case remains “under review.” (more...)
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| No time for victims, abundant time for photo-ops and grandstanding |
Ideologues are prone to overlook the corruption at the root of our problems and bemoan the inevitable consequences of that corruption. Social conservatives will never achieve their goals without addressing the disease afflicting the social body at its core; not merely decrying symptoms. They can begin with the corruption in their own ranks. The new fascism is as depraved as the old fascism; more so. Modernists offer no way out.
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