Cardinal McCarrick “Laicized” – Is It That Simple?
Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca, the Secretary of the Apostolic Signature, where Cardinal Burke used to be the boss, raised strong objections against Cardinal McCarrick’s laicisation. Sciacca argues that it is not advisable to remove a bishop for any reason from the clerical state. He even doubts that such a removal is possible.
In the latest issue of the Italian review “Jus”, Sciacca quotes canon 290 which says that dismissal from the clerical state can be granted “to deacons only for grave reasons” and “to priests only for the gravest of reasons.” The dismissal of a bishop who detains the fullness of the sacrament of orders, is not even mentioned. Only the 2001 Motu Proprio "Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela" by John Paul II introduced laicization for bishops.
However, Sciacca stresses that the episcopal consecration produces an irrevocable insertion into the college of bishops. Therefore, a bishop can only be inhibited from exercising his …More