ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Journal
October 24, 2018
By Marjorie Crow
Thank you for the Journal’s continuing coverage of the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests, most recently by Journal reporter Colleen Heild on (Oct. 14). Thank you also to Attorney General Hector Balderas and KOB TV reporter Chris Ramirez for their continuing investigations and coverage of this story.
The hypocrisy of the Catholic Church is appalling on this issue. The Church continues to press its onerous control of the sex lives of lay Catholics: no pre-marital sex, no birth control, no homosexual sex, no masturbation, no abortion, no anything other than sex within marriage to make children. While none of the forbidden behaviors are crimes outside of the Church, the rampant child sexual abuses inside the Church ARE crimes. Even the “punishments” of defrocking or excommunication are not in any way comparable to years in prison for lay child abusers.
The child abuse by priests issue has festered in this country and the world since its widespread exposure in the 1990s and is finally being addressed, although most of the abuse took place many years ago, they say. Why should anyone believe it is only in the past? There was a letter to the Journal a short time ago that argued that most priests are very good and holy people, and that the abusers are “a small minority.” Are 74 priests in New Mexico and 300 in Pennsylvania, multiplied by every state and every country in the world, a small minority? This was the position of most Catholics many years ago when it became a national and worldwide issue: that it’s only a few misguided people. Then the whole thing was swept under the rug.
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