PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times
Published: Saturday, May 26, 2012
By MAUREEN PAUL TURLISH
Times Guest Columnist
One of the most egregious and telling examples of what has been happening in the institutional Roman Catholic Church worldwide is what has been happening in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia since the Boston, Mass., Archdiocese imploded in 2002.
In an article, “The crisis of credibility in Philadelphia,” published in the National Catholic Reporter on 10/28/2005.
I quoted Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s words to a CNN reporter. Bevilacqua said, “We are all agreed that no priest guilty of even one act of sexual abuse of a minor will function in any ecclesial ministry or any capacity in our diocese.”
Events following that April 2002 statement have shown in excruciating detail that Cardinal Bevilacqua’s words did not accurately describe the actions of the Philadelphia hierarchy then or during the ten years that followed.
Events since 2002 include:
— Three grand juries being convened to investigate the Archdiocese of Philadelphia resulting in reports published in 2005 and again in 2011,
— The release of depositions given by Cardinal Bevilacqua and some of his auxiliary bishops,
— Denials by Cardinal Justin Rigali shortly after the second grand jury was released in February 2011 that no suspected, credibly accused of known sexual predators were in ministry,
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