Santorum Blames Victims: Voters Take Note

By Rachelle G. Cohen
Boston Herald
January 6, 2012

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/20220106santorum_blames_victims_voters_take_note/

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks at a campaign town hall in Northfield, N.H. Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012,

Let's prepare an authentic New England welcome for the Republican Party's latest heartthrob, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

Yes, welcome to the land where we never forget and we never, ever forgive.

We especially can never forgive the way he blamed this community and its often liberal political base for the sexual abuse too many of its children suffered at the hands of predatory priests. It was a dark day surely for the victims, for all of us who suffered with them, for those who turned away from their pain and for the Catholic church which continues to try to set things right.

This is what Santorum said back in 2002 at the height of the scandal, in Catholic On-Line:

"When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While there's no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm."

"No surprise?" Really. That's rather like blaming a rape victim for wearing a too-short dress.

He could have backed down. He could have seen the light — even in the wake of Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation, and prosecutions in the handful of cases on which the statute of limitations had not expired. He didn't.

In a 2005 interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos he just kept right on blaming all the wrong people.

"Look, the statement I made was that the culture influences people's behavior," he said. "I think what I'm saying is that the culture of liberal sexual freedom and the sexual revolution of the 1960s and '70s had a profound impact on everybody and their sexual mores. It had a profound impact on the church."

Liberalism as a precursor to pedophilia — what an interesting concept.

And Santorum insisted he singled out Boston because "Well, at the time we did not know it was in every city in the country."

In fact by 2005 a Philadelphia grand jury announced it had found evidence of abuse by at least 63 pedophile priests in that archdiocese and a similar pattern of shuffling them from parish to parish. Of course, it wasn't until last February that yet another grand jury named 37 priests who remained in active ministry "despite credible allegations of abuse." Guess we just move a little more quickly around here than in Santorum's home state.

It's still unclear whether Santorum thinks Boston's "taint" extends to the reaches of New Hampshire, where the wonderboy is now campaigning. Perhaps he'd like to know that the Granite State was a favorite spot for several of those pedophile priests to take their victims — and it's exactly why some of those victims got to see justice done.

Yes, we have long, long memories here. And we never forgive.

Rachelle G. Cohen is editor of the editorial pages.