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Bishop to Priest check - What do you know? The bishop pushes one priest out of his parish and appoints another to his place knowing all along his appointment has been having a sexual relationship with a woman he was counseling.

The bishop could not tell because he learned of it through confession. I can see now how much of the problems of late in the church occurred. Secrets secrets

Wonder how this incident will be covered up?
posted by bill to religion at 7:44 A.M. EST     (4 Comments)

Comments ...

SNAP claims the female participant in this case to be a victim. I see no information offered to substantiate that claim. I'm no fan of philandering priests, and cover ups are worse, but based on the absence of evidence this looks like two consenting adults - not a victimization. Does the Church have problems? You bet! But at least this was an adult female and a priest, not a young male or female and a priest.
posted by holland at 09:18 A.M. EST on Thu Jul 26, 2007     #

Take the religion out of it - my minister is also a licensed counsellor.

If this priest was councelling this woman and ended up having an affair with her, that's definately an ethics issue.
posted by billy at 10:04 A.M. EST on Thu Jul 26, 2007     #

You're right billy. I hadnt thought of the pastoral counseling. If indeed she was seeking counseling, then this is taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable state.
posted by holland at 12:48 P.M. EST on Thu Jul 26, 2007     #

What makes this a woman a victim (she'd be a victim if she was a male too) is the dynamic power differential between the two of them. It's the same reason that doctor's can't sleep with patients in their care, teachers can't sleep with students and counselors can't sleep with their clients. They are never on equal footing.

And -- worse still, he officiated her husband's funeral, a sudden death. He was providing her pastoral outreach, clearly in a position of power and authority at an extremely vulnerable time.

But enough about Nuss... what about the Bishop? What I don't get (is there a Canon lawyer in the house) is if the bishop lied to the parishoners who had SNAP's documents, citing later that he HAD to because of the seal of confession and the threat of ex-communication, what changed now? If it was wrong then, why is it right now? Can you dissolve that seal?

And, even so -- clearly Nuss was conflicted. Why not get him help and NOT assign him to a parish whose priest didn't even want to leave?
posted by anotherblogger at 11:39 P.M. EST on Thu Jul 26, 2007     #

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