Scott Hahn has now decided to become his own Magisterium, lecturing the Pope and the bishops on how priests accused of molestation should be treated. Surely, Scott knows best, right? He thinks all priests accused/convicted of molestation should be excommunicated, because simple laicization is too light a punishment, and therefore "an insult" to the laity.
Dr. Scott Hahn has spoken, the matter is closed, right?
Get a copy of canon law (here's the original, here's a summary), and look up the offenses which automatically impose excommunication. It is essentially imposed only for offenses against, or denial of, the sacraments. Abortion and physical attack on the Pope are the only real exceptions to that rule of thumb. Rape is terrible, but it certainly doesn't qualify as an excommunicable offense according to the rules of canon law.
But Scott Hahn, the ex-Protestant minister who still doesn't quite get how Catholicism works, doesn't agree. He knows more than the Church, an amazing skill, really. Has anyone who agrees with Scott's stupidity ever MET a laicized priest and talked with them?
Get over your personal decision to excommunicate the laicized priest accused of molestation, and try talking to some of them sometime. These men typically have zero prospects in life. They have no useful skills, they have little or no experience in the workplace, as former priests, they have no resume they can list... what are you going to put down? That you were kicked out of the Catholic priesthood for suspicion of molesting children? Yeah, THAT will go over well in an interview.
These men end up doing manual labor or lucking into a job at Walmart as a greeter. Or, they just kind of wander around, hoping some former friends maintain enough of a friendship to let them sleep on a couch. Some will find temporary refuge amongst heretical or semi-heretical religious orders as spiritual advisors, but even there, they are lucky to get bed and board.
They have no prospects, no support, no future.
Laicization is an absolute destruction of everything they ever thought they would have. It's not unlike being released from prison after a murder sentence... Yeah, you're "free", for all the good it will do you.
Don't underestimate how harsh the current sentence is.
It is DEFINITELY punishment.
Do they deserve it?
SURE, if they committed the crime.
But, just as the secular judgment systems sometimes convict the innocent, so do the Catholic canon law courts. Innocent men are sometimes laicized. And the problem is, as lay people, we have no idea which ones might be actually innocent of all charges, but still punished with laicization and a completely destroyed life.
Scott Hahn is an ex-Protestant minister who essentially excommunicated himself from his old Protestant community. He thinks of laicization in terms of what HE has experienced. He leveraged his excommunication into literally a multi-million dollar empire, monetizing his own life experience in much the same lucrative way that Zuckerberg monetizes everyone else's life experiences. He has now decided to imitate Facebook and monetize the publicly destroyed lives of these priests, pursue the "culture of outrage" to make a few bucks off of that.
Hahn apparently thinks his personally satisfying and financially rewarding excommunication experience translates to that of laicized priests, that it gives him the right to make money off of their sins and their punishment. It doesn't. He thinks he has the right to lecture the Pope, the bishops, the Church itself, on what is or is not appropriate punishment for priests. He doesn't.
Pretending that he has such rights, and inflicting his pretensions on the rest of us ... THAT insults the laity.
6 comments:
Our priests are mostly ignorant of what's outside the Catholic bubble they live in, and there's no rite of passage from boys to men. Thus their clericalism is that much tougher to stomach, though it may not be their own fault. Perhaps Scott Hahn deserves scorn, but give these priests a severance package and let them grow up doing manual labor. It was good enough for Joseph the carpenter, and all work is holy. Since they are guaranteed a harsher judgement, they can start their purgatory now. Meanwhile, the Church should never recruit directly from school -- most especially grad school. The Church needs apprentices, not theologians. Christ had no degree. Enough of the elitism!
Your bizarre attacks on the character and sincerity of Dr. Scott Hahn are unjust and baseless. He has never said that an unsubstantiated and unproven accusations should be sufficient to disqualify a man from continuing to exercise priesthood. Since he's a Christian, he naturally says that a proper conviction must precede laicisation.
Sadly, I'm not surprised that you cite no evidence for your accusation of what Dr. Hahn says the Church should do about priests facing unproven allegations of sexual molestation. Please get the facts before flying off in a huff.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/scott-hahn-sexual-predators-like-mccarrick-should-receive-excommunication
And how come you have the right to "lecture" the Church on the appropriate punishment for priests who engage in sexual perversion, but Dr. Scott Hahn doesn't have the same right?
Considering the fact that such acts merit eternal torment in hell, why do you think mere excommunication is unmerciful and unjust? You don't think you know better than Jesus and the Apostles, do you?
Sorry, just wondering, isn’t excommunication for those who have chosen to stay in their sin? And then lifted after they have confessed their sin?
If the priest who has committed these crimes confessed his sins, wouldn’t that make excommunication not needed?
>And how come you have the right to "lecture" the Church on the appropriate punishment for
Priests who engage in sexual perversion, but Dr. Scott Hahn doesn't have the same right?
Confitebor is right. That is a bit daft.
Post a Comment