CINCINNATI (OH)
The Enquirer
August 23, 2018
By Kyle Schnippel
Please bear with me for this letter, but I feel this needs to be said and addressed. I have been struggling how to address this topic. Many of my brother priests across the country have addressed the topic homiletically, which I have yet to do. It is sometimes difficult to address the topic when I only preach at one parish on a weekend.
The long and short of it is: I am angry and betrayed at the news and events that have recently been revealed in both Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. I am angry at the shortsightedness of bishops. I am angry at those who knew something about Archbishop McCarrick and did or said nothing. I am even angrier at those who actively sought to bury the information that is now being revealed in the press and in witness statements, etc.
With McCarrick in particular, I feel a strong sense of betrayal. In 2002, he was part of the face of the reforms called for in the wake of the revelations out of Boston and the implementation of the Dallas Charter that called for zero tolerance in the face of credible allegations of abuse against a priest. And he had credible and substantiated cases against him! Cases that were apparently widely known, yet nothing came out against him and he continued to minister “in good standing” while so many priests who had far less credible evidence against them were removed from ministry.
(I want to be absolutely clear here: I 100 percent agree that there is no room in ministry for priests who have engaged in sexual abuse of another. Full stop. My issue is that it is very clear now that Archbishop McCarrick (formerly Cardinal McCarrick) had significant evidence against him, yet he continued in ministry. This is the source of my anger.)
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