... we have put together a symposium by Paul Seaton, Richard Garnett, and Ed Condon to think about the legal, institutional, and reform issues the Catholic Church’s abuses puts to the law and to itself.
Paul Seaton – The Archbishop and the Pope
To begin with the obvious is a good place to start. In this case it is also quite dramatic. Archbishop Viganò’s recent J’accuse of the Pope and many high-up church men is not just another salvo in the ongoing civil war in the Catholic church, it changes the battlefield in a dramatic way. Its impact was immediately felt, while its full impact and significance remain to be seen, as responses and reactions unfold. Such is the nature of history with human agency involved. Since it is a battlefield with armed camps and live-fire, there will be casualties, including reputations and, to some extent, truth, and smoke aplenty. In the fog of battle, it helps to have some understanding of the state of the Church and who the combatants are.
Richard W. Garnett – The Catholic Church’s Accountability and Autonomy
[T]he recent horrifying and heartbreaking revelations, reports, and rumors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have supplied additional evidence that, reasonable people could well conclude, cuts against my positions. As Damon Linker put it, writing in The Week, the “monstrous, grotesque ugliness” of alleged and confirmed abuses reveals the Catholic Church “as a repulsive institution.” Respecting the rights of the “repulsive” is, for all of us, a challenge.
Ed Condon – Flouting the Canon Law, Once More
The recent series of scandals to engulf the Church in the United States, first around Archbishop Theodore McCarrick and then following the publication of the Pennsylvania grand jury report, have left the hierarchy in a difficult position. On the one hand, the evidence seems to be that previous reforms are working, albeit with now obvious gaps in its applicability—most notably for addressing allegations made against bishops. On the other, the presence of so many unresolved cases, even if they are historical, in many dioceses suggests a continued reticence to go “looking for trouble” in one’s own filing cabinet.
Predictably, of course, let me use that as a jumping off point for a little self-promotion:
Bainbridge, Stephen M., Restoring Confidence in the Roman Catholic Church: Corporate Governance Analogies. UCLA School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 18-32. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3249236
