Abortion Fight Highlights Push for Transparency in Catholicism
An airplane, two trucks and one demonstrator holding signs made up the efforts of an anti-abortion organization Friday to urge local Catholics to implore Diocese of Amarillo Bishop Patrick J. Zurek to rethink his decision to keep prominent anti-abortion priest Father Frank Pavone in Amarillo.
The demonstration highlights the public nature of the dispute between the two church figures, which University of Dayton theology professor Dennis Doyle said is taking place within a larger conflict between the Catholic Church’s need for independence from secular authority and a push for greater transparency in the church after a maelstrom of sexual abuse scandals shook the church in recent years.
“I guess it’s playing out a little bit like a seesaw in that, as a Catholic, on the one hand I think that the church has to be subject to the laws of the land wherever it finds itself, and on the other hand the Catholic Church needs to have some degree of independence from secular authority,” Doyle said. “There’s pull in both directions, and I don’t think there’s any ultimate resolution to it.”
Full story is at the AmarilloGlobeNews.