PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record
Jeffrey Blum September 8, 2016
Bishop Ronald Gainer recently submitted a letter to the newspaper stating that his “heart aches” for victims of sexual abuse. He apologizes “for the harm that has been inflicted on them.”
All well and good, Bishop Gainer. However, may we remind you that reconciliation is not as simple as saying you are sorry? It is also promising not to sin again by totally righting the wrong, not just partially.
Do your faithful Catholics contributing to the Sunday collection realize that a significant amount of their donation is taxed by your office and spent to fund the Catholic Conference? The title sounds like an organization dedicated to doing good works: feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, not protecting pedophiles!
Do the faithful realize that dollars were spent on lobbying and lawyers to sway the Senate into stripping House Bill 1947, a bill that had been overwhelmingly passed by the House, to give voice to victims of sexual violation?
Do the faithful realize that this action gives a free pass to the 95 percent of sexual predators who are not members of the clergy? That it enables them to continue to violate a hundred thousand children?
Do they even hear the word “violate” in your toothless apologies? Abuse, rape, molestation are soft words. Shatter. Traumatize. Violate, Destroy. These words all more appropriately describe what happens to an innocent victim of sexual violence.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.