UNITED STATES
catholicculture.org
September 4, 2017
Phil Lawler
Could a society have its own defining sin? My wife Leila addressed that question on her own blog recently, and as usual I think she’s right.
By a “defining” sin I don’t mean to suggest that a particular society is prone to only one type of moral failing. All Ten Commandments are at risk every day, in every time and place where fallen human beings are gathered. Rather, I mean one persistent problem that points toward a weakness of the entire culture. …
… When the sex-abuse scandal came to the forefront 15 years ago, we learned to our horror that many bishops—not a few; many—had deceived the faithful by covering up the misconduct of predatory priests. Worse still, when they were confronted with charges of clerical abuse—charges that they knew to be true—many Church leaders not only denied those charges, but accused the people who lodged them of calumny. In doing so, they bore false witness against honest, faithful Catholics who were asking for justice. Since 2002, dozens of bishops have issued public apologies for tolerating priestly misconduct and for covering up evidence of abuse. But has a single bishop ever apologized to the many good Catholics who were accused of recklessly smearing a priest’s reputation, when in fact they were telling the truth?
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