Resources - Letters to Pope and Bishops
An Open Letter to Cardinal Cupich
Re: Clerical SexAbuse Conference called by Pope Francis
Reverend Blasé Cupich:
As you and other members of the Planning Committee prepare to tally the results of the questionnaire completed by bishops, along with it, we urge you to include the insights of some of the leadership of the Church – including priests, bishops, and vicar generals – who have affiliated with us. In a separate letter, we have presented our hopes for specific agenda items in the form of bullet points for your reflection in these remaining weeks. Having submitted these points, we recognize that the follow-up planning will be long term and must of prudent necessity include the lay faithful in many forms. We appreciate and support your description of this conference as "the beginning of a worldwide reform that will need to be ongoing and will involve a process of initiatives on regional, national and diocesan levels." Guided by the Spirit, the bishops will most assuredly lay out plans that will involve the people of God’s full participation, not limited to serving as equal members on tribunals and could even lead to calling a 3rd Ecumenical Council. With this in mind, we’d now like to present what most progressives consider to be the apparent overriding solutions that will purge the Church once and for all of this malignant disease infesting our Church.