Faded Memories

By Dan Carlson
Faded Memories blog
January 19, 2019

https://vanishingpredators.com/blog/f/faded-memories

When I was in Air Force technical school many years ago, one of my instructors kept a toy tractor on his desk. As we in the class learned quickly, the tractor was a useful motivational tool … when a student gave a wrong answer in class, the instructor would pass him the tractor telling him to use it to pull his head out of his … well … someplace where it should not have been.

Watching the continuing comedy of errors in Catholic Church leadership, I have a feeling that my instructor’s tractor could be useful. The most recent candidate for this piece of machinery would have to be Cardinal Donald Wuerl who, last week, remembered that he had forgotten about an accusation he had forwarded to Rome in 2004, concerning sexual misconduct by disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Yes, you read that correctly … he remembered that he had forgotten.

It is important to note that this hollow explanation follows upon Wuerl’s repeated obfuscation regarding what he knew about McCarrick’s sexual misconduct, when he became aware of it, and what he did about it.  Meanwhile, McCarrick, who has been ordered to a life of seclusion, prayer and penance at a friary in Kansas, awaits disposition of his case in the Vatican justice system.

In the late 1970s, comedian Steve Martin explained how using the words “I forgot” can get us out of trouble. Martin went on to explain that it is possible to become wealthy simply by not paying taxes, and when the IRS comes calling all we have to do is say: “I forgot that I am supposed to pay taxes.” The same thing goes for a charge of armed robbery … according to Martin, all we have to tell the judge is: “I forgot armed robbery is illegal.”

Martin is, of course, a master at the art of comedy, especially the ability to tease laughter out of things that are ludicrous or far-fetched … like telling the IRS we forgot that we are required to pay taxes. The reason we find this humorous, of course, is because we know it is a lie … and since the IRS would never accept that excuse, we laugh.

With regard to Cardinal Wuerl’s incomprehensible lapse of memory, though, we are expected to accept this as actual truth. In this time of crisis in the Catholic Church, many of us in the pews believe our shepherds have been - and continue to be - untruthful. That being so, is it any wonder that when Wuerl tells us he remembered he forgot, we all shake our heads and sigh one more time.

While Wuerl’s memory is sketchy with regard to names, dates and accusations, there is one group whose vivid recall of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church will never fade … I am referring, of course, to the multitude of youngsters victimized for years by predatory Catholic clergy.

They will never forget.