UNITED STATES
WBUR
[with audio]
The Catholic Church has been in the public spotlight a lot this year. The issues of contraception and gay marriage have been part of the presidential campaign and church leaders have weighed in. There have also been new revelations in a case involving leaked Vatican documents, and it may actually be a case where the butler did it. Host Rachel Martin speaks with John Allen, a senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter.
Transcript
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For more on the potential impact of this case and the overall state of the U.S. Catholic Church right now, we’re joined by John Allen. He is senior correspondent with the National Catholic Reporter. He joins us on the line.
Thanks so much for being with us, John.
JOHN ALLEN: Rachel, it’s a pleasure.
MARTIN: We just heard Barbara Bradley Hagerty outline the gist of this case against Monsignor Lynn. What are the implications? What does this trial mean for the Catholic Church?
ALLEN: Well, on one level it is a sad confirmation of the narrative that is already terribly familiar, which is that there was a pattern in the church of when accusations of sexual abuse against personnel would be brought forward, not to report them to police and prosecutors; to try to handle them internally and, in some cases, to sweep them under the rug.
But the new element here is that for the first time, we have a senior church official who’s been criminally indicted, not for the abuse itself but for the cover-up. And what that does is send a powerful signal to other administrators in the church that if they engage in the same kind of conduct, they could pay the same price.
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