The task of the Judicial Council is almost impossible. It has hurdles which mitigate against being fully just on many matters, especially those related to personnel where the resident bishops have a major stake, either because of culpability, fulfilling a need to control, or protecting the Church from law suits.
The Judicial Council is a very human entity, subject to ignorance of the intricacies of church law (over 1150 decisions made over seventy years and Disciplines up to 850 pages long and changing every four years) and having no research staffs to help them.
How tempting to count on trusted bishops, to relinquish complicated responsibilities, to fall into a “save the institution” mentality under the stress of increasing workloads.
Reviews of decisions since April of 2009 may show how much this Council has learned and matured. Those will be addressed on this blog next.
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