UNITED STATES
CNN
August 21, 2018
By Carol Costello
Editor’s note: Carol Costello is the host of “Across America With Carol Costello” on HLN. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion articles on CNN.
Dear Pope Francis,
It is hard to be Catholic today. I know you finally spoke out to us — in a letter — about the horrific allegations of sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses. I’ve been waiting for days to find comfort from Rome. And you notably began your letter by quoting St. Paul: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with.”
While I appreciate the words, I need to see action. I need to see real change.
We are suffering from disappointment so deep it is, for some of us, hard to believe in God. On Sunday, at my church, Sacred Heart Chapel on the campus of Loyola Marymount University, Father Allan Deck put it into words: “The emotional and sexual abuse and manipulation of others, especially little children, constitutes a gross rejection of the healthy and holistic love exemplified by Jesus and proposed by our Catholic tradition.” (Full disclosure: My husband is President of LMU.)
And then he cautioned, “These terrible reports are not going to stop.”
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