UNITED STATES
Boston Globe
By Joan Vennochi
Globe Columnist
April 22, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI can’t wait to crack down on “radical feminist” nuns.
But will he ever really crack down on protectors of pedophile priests?
A Vatican-led investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious cites the nuns’ silence on abortion and same-sex marriage. How bad is that up against the silence of church officials, from parish priests to the Vatican, who ignored and concealed child sex crimes?
By ironic coincidence, news about the Vatican’s effort to rein in the conference — the largest and most influential group of Catholic nuns in the United States — broke the same day the Rev. Bradley M. Schaeffer resigned from the Boston College Board of Trustees after growing public criticism over the role he played in supervising a former Jesuit priest who allegedly molested dozens of children over a span of 40 years.
The juxtaposition of the two events exposes a familiar church mindset.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.