Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is the highest-ranking church leader and the first cardinal to be been laicized by the Vatican, stripping him of all rights and obligations as a member of the clergy. While McCarrick’s defrocking is a good thing, it is “too little, too late.” His scandal has proved one of the most damning to the Church’s reputation because seminarian abuse was apparently an open secret in some ecclesial circles for years. McCarrick is just one example of a seemingly a long-standing “policy” of vigorously defending clergy.
The announcement came less than a week before the highly anticipated Vatican Summit (February 21 – 24) which will draw church leaders from around the world to discuss decades of clergy abuse within the Catholic church. It is anybody’s guess what the outcome of the Summit will be, and it would be naïve to think that a four-day meeting can fully resolve a scandal of such magnitude. But, one thing is for sure – enough is enough! It is time for complete transparency at all levels of the Church and the establishment of active protocols to combat this crisis.
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