Editorial for September 29, 2005


Condemn the sinners

What do leader of the free world George W. Bush and leaders of the Roman Catholic Church have in common? They all got caught with their pants down.

Mr. Bush’s initial response — or lack thereof — to the plight of Hurricane Katrina victims, and the Catholic Church’s initial response to widespread sexual abuse of children by priests, were colossal failures.

Ladies and gentlemen, as bad as the federal government’s tepid response to the Katrina victims was, things cannot get much worse than supposedly esteemed members of the clergy committing absolutely horrible crimes of passion against the most vulnerable of their flock. The information coming from a grand jury report last week is more than enough to turn the stomachs of anybody with even a shred of decency.

Men of the cloth engaging in such disgraceful, shameful, reprehensible behavior? One need not be Catholic to be totally appalled by it all. The abuse is sickening, and would be just as sickening had it taken place in synagogues or mosques.

The true sin here is that Cardinal John Krol, may he rest in peace, was never charged with obstruction of justice, and, thanks to Pennsylvania’s pathetically weak statute of limitations, Krol’s successor, retired Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, is immune to prosecution on the same charge. In case you missed the grand jury’s scathing report, both men participated in a cover-up of abuse cases.

Is it too late to file federal civil-rights violations against all involved? Let the courts determine that.

The Catholic Church is, no doubt, an inherently good and decent religion that touts chastity and peace, but to those whose blind loyalty to the Catholic hierarchy allows them to minimize sins of the past, shame on you. And to all — especially the parents of the sexual abuse victims — who declined to go to the police to report the atrocities, we say this: You did not have the right to remain silent. ••

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