PENNSYLVANIA
Catholic4Change
MARCH 6, 2016 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS
Click here to read: “Law officers, clergy forged ties stymieing prosecutions,” by Caitlin McCabe and Maria Panaritis, The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 6, 2016
Having faith and holding leadership accountable should not be mutually exclusive. We can have faith in God and send Bishops to jail. We can be Catholic and not tolerate the cover up of clergy child sex abuse. How many Saints died for their faith? The least we can do is speak up to protect our Catholic faith from its morally and criminally corrupt leaders. Or, we can sit in Church and put our blinders on. After all, everyone makes mistakes. Just so long as a priest doesn’t make a child rape “mistake” with their own grandson or granddaughter.
This is where I’d like to insert a string of expletives but I’ll continue to use the vocabulary the Immaculate Heart Sisters taught me. Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air but the Church needs a hurricane now. It needs every Catholic voice to say, “We will not tolerate this.”
If you can’t get angry about child rape then maybe muster up some irritation at the amount of money going to victim settlements that could have been avoided if predators had been stopped when they were first discovered. That money should have gone to feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless or keeping your parish open. How much have you put into the collection basket over a lifetime? How much did your parents? Keep it coming.
According to the US Bishops Conference, the Catholic Church spent almost $3 billion on settlements, therapy for victims, support for offenders, attorneys’ fees and other costs in the United States from 2004 until 2013. Restitution to victims is fair and right. But I’m sure victims wouldn’t have traded their childhoods for it. Wouldn’t it have been better to shut the abuse down in its tracks before the numbers grew? Instead they covered it up and caused immeasurable emotional damage and still growing financial burdens.
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