The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s current strategy of censuring priests and religious is out of step with church teaching and has been roundly criticized as “ridiculous and self-defeating” by an Irish priest who fell afoul of the Vatican in 2011.
Speaking for the first time publicly about his experience, Redemptorist Fr. Gerry Moloney warned that “imposing sanctions on people does not make them change their views.”
He was one of 15 signatories to the recent letter to Pope Francis and the CDF calling for reform of the Vatican’s investigation processes and for greater accountability and transparency in its methods which were deemed “medieval,” lacking in basic politeness and designed to wear those being investigated down.