PENNSYLVANIA
Philly Voice
BRIAN HICKEY
PhillyVoice Staff
“We know in faith that Jesus seeks us out. He wants to heal our wounds, to soothe our feet which hurt from traveling alone, to wash each of us clean of the dust from our journey.”
Those words were delivered by Pope Francis to inmates at Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility during his September visit to the city.
Speaking of which, remember all that goodwill those heady days just nine months ago engendered?
I do, thanks in part to the knee-jerk giddiness that accompanied seeing the pontiff in his Fiat as it cruised up North Seventh Street one afternoon.
Strike that: I did until I read Thursday’s story about the Archdiocese of Philadelphia going full Trump-mode against believers who dare stand up for the rights of sexual-abuse victims. Now, not so much.
At the center of this mess is state Rep. Nick Miccarelli, a Delaware County Republican who the church decided to call out in the weekly bulletin distributed to Mass-goers at his home parish, St. Rose of Lima in Eddystone.
“JUST SO YOU ARE AWARE,” it read (all-caps theirs), “State Representative Miccarelli voted in favor of House Bill 1947 which states that private institutions can be sued as far as 40 years ago for millions of dollars, while public institutions may not be sued for any crimes committed in the past.”
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