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  Thinking out Loud: Going for the Catholic Jugular?

By Sal Giarratani
Allston-Brighton Tab
April 10, 2010

http://www.wickedlocal.com/allston/news/lifestyle/columnists/x998207009/Thinking-out-loud-Going-for-the-Catholic-jugular

Recently, I have been reading the New York Times to keep up on the sex abuse scandals inside the Catholic Church across Europe. We’ve all heard about what happened in Ireland. Now, we are hearing about Germany. Also, let us not forget closer to home a scandal concerning the Catholic Church in Wisconsin.

Every day it appears things only seem to get worse. The more revelations, the more accusations and the more denials or explanations only seem to paint an even uglier picture than I thought possible within my own church’s hierarchy.

On March 31, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights bought a quarter-page advertisement in the New York Times to question the newspaper’s accuracy of what is playing out concerning the Vatican and sex abuse by predatory priests. The Catholic League would have readers believe that it is all a part of some anti-Catholic plot to make the Vatican look bad. Their ad is titled “Going for the Vatican Jugular.”

They attempt to defend the Vatican in the case of a serial predatory priest in Wisconsin, whose behavior began in the 1950s, saying the Vatican never heard of the case until 1996. They never mention that the archbishop in Wisconsin wrote the Vatican about the priest, but was apparently fluffed by church officials in Rome. No one reportedly ever got back to him.

The archbishop isn’t blameless here because he just seemed to drop the ball when he apparently received no reply.

The Catholic League also says there is no “pedophilia crisis” but only a homosexual crisis since most molesters have been gay. Personally, I’m not caught up in this word game. Call them what you want but when sex offenders operate, they are all predators like wolves in a pack looking for a helpless herd animal.

The Catholic League has decided to not speak up for victims of sexual abuse by clergy and by way have become nothing more than apologists for a hierarchy more concerned about its own image than the protection of children.

The Catholic League, like L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, would rather attack those who bring forward the sex abuse issues as having some sort of agenda, ‘‘a clear and despicable intention” to strike at Pope Benedict “at any cost.”

The independent National Catholic Reporter recently called on Pope Benedict to answer questions about his role concerning sex abuse during his tenure as Archbishop of Munich. I still am steaming at the knowledge back in 2002 here in Boston of how badly Cardinal Bernard Law as archbishop of Boston seemed to serve his flock when it came to charges of sex abuse within the church. He was forced to resign as the scandal rocked the Boston archdiocese, but landed on his feet when Pope John Paul II put him in charge of a prestigious Roman basilica.

It is time for cover-ups to end worldwide within the Catholic Church. On the same day as that Catholic League advertisement in the New York Times, I read a great commentary by conservative writer Cal Thomas who stated, “In all of this, it appears that the Catholic Church is more interested in preserving the institution than the integrity of the One it is supposed to represent.”

Absent still in the reaction of the Roman Catholic hierarchy is a sense of understanding of the true scope of the tragedy and the role that enabling bishops played in spreading the harm as predators were relocated parish to parish, diocese to diocese and victim to new victim

In 1 Timothy 3:2, Paul instructed his brother Timothy on what qualities are needed for a good pastor. Paul writes, “... the overseer must be above reproach.” Today, the behavior of those who abused and those who enabled abuse to flourish are beneath contempt.

The Vatican needs to lead again. Our bishops need to be servants again. Absent this, the pews will keep getting emptier as people separate their church from their religion. Without trust between the clergy and the people, all we have is buildings. Christ didn’t die on the cross and rise again on the third day so that our bishops could look the other way when harm was nearby.

Too bad for so long, the lights were out for the hierarchy seemingly more interested in hiding the ugliness and watching it metastasize. I hope the lights are finally on now, but I’m still not too sure.

 
 

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