Let's Arrest O'Malley, by Sue Hyde, Bay Windows [Boston MA], March 16, 2006

Let's Arrest O'Malley

By Sue Hyde
Bay Windows [Boston MA]
March 16, 2006

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Officer, arrest that man in the sackcloth gown!

I refer, of course, to the Most Rev. Seán Patrick O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston. The very same Archbishop O'Malley who has decreed that Catholic Charities will cease and desist all work on adoptions in the state in order that the Archbishop shall not soil his hands by having contact with homosexuality.

I call for the arrest and detention of Archbishop O'Malley on three charges:

• Conspiring to endanger children by failing to put in place key reforms to detect and prevent sexual abuse of children by persons in his employ.

• Conspiring to avoid and circumvent Massachusetts non-discrimination laws and policies by precipitously withdrawing social services to hundreds of difficult-to-place children awaiting adoption in foster care and other out-of-home living situations.

• Repeated failure to pay local and state property taxes on extensive holdings in the Boston area and throughout the state.

On the first matter, the office of the Attorney General of Massachusetts has written a letter to Archbishop Seán pointing out that there is not yet a method of overseeing or tracking the whereabouts of allegedly abusive priests and that the Archdiocese has not completed sexual-abuse prevention programs for all children. Now let's get this straight: four years ago, the tawdry and shameful priest sexual abuse scandal exploded in Boston at Ground Zero, the Archbishop's office. The Archdiocese ended up admitting that seven percent of its priests had been accused of sexually abusing 815 children between 1950 and 2003. Surely, an institution that cares about children would have moved heaven and earth to protect children from rampaging abusive priests (No!) and to ensure that effective sexual abuse prevention programs had been established (No!). The AG's office describes the failure to monitor abusive priests, former priests and church workers as a "critical safety issue." Archbishop O'Malley jeopardizes the safety of children all over the Commonwealth and yet freely wanders the streets of our city.

On the second matter, the Archbishop has declared that Catholic Charities would suspend all adoption services so that he could circumvent the non-discrimination laws of the state that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Seán O'Malley shut down the Catholic Charities adoption services rather than consider gay and lesbian people as potential adoptive parents. Surely an institution that cares about children would place in highest priority the needs of kids whose life circumstances make them among the most difficult to place for permanent adoptive homes. But no, Seán O'Malley regards his own feelings of animus and aversion towards gay people as supreme, while kids sit and wait for the families that win his stamp of approval to come forward and adopt them. Meanwhile, he enjoys life as a free man.

What do these two charges against our local Prince of the Church have to do with each other' The most obvious common feature of the failure to protect children and the dumping of kids in foster care is that each belies the O'Malley babble of caring about children. News Flash! Archbishop Doesn't Care About Kids!

But, what does he care about' Check it out: the AG's office released its critical letter on/about Feb. 28; the Archdiocese campaign to demean and defame gay and lesbian people as parents got a big boost on/about March 1 when their good friend Gov. Mitt Romney reversed field and announced that he was willing to do heavy lifting on behalf of the Bishops. What a break for the Bishops!

Romney, in an excellent grasp of the powers of his office, had previously told the Bishops that the matter of flouting the anti-discrimination law was out of his hands and he could not issue an executive order exempting them from the law. Legislative leaders, most notably Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty, said the legislature had no appetite for facilitating O'Malley's sidestep of the law. But, Mitt smelled political paydirt and delivered for the boys in brown, just as that pesky AG was taking them to task for endangering children'again.

A convenient development for Seán P., since he needs to both distract parents and parishioners from the harsh criticism by the AG while needing to rev up the opposition to equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. After all, we've got a vote on the anti-family constitutional amendment coming up on May 10. The Archbishop and his men need to pull out the stops to move the amendment forward.

As to the matter of taxes, it is really quite simple. If Archbishop Seán Patrick O'Malley wishes to set law and social policy in Massachusetts, then he can bloody well pay his taxes and get the church off the welfare merry-go-round. His Brighton-based advocacy organization has spent millions of dollars to convince legislators and voters that the constitutionally recognized freedom to marry for same-sex couples poses the gravest moral danger to society since Galileo suggested the earth revolves around the sun. So, the Archbishop feels moved to try to sway elected officials to his point of view' Great! Let the guy in brown have his turn. But pay up, Seán P., just like the rest of us who reside in Massachusetts. Make an honest man of yourself, before I make a citizen's arrest.

Sue Hyde celebrated First Communion and Confirmation at St. Alexius Catholic Church in Beardstown, Illinois. She was a founder of the Gay and Lesbian Defense Committee, an advocacy group that resisted Gov. Michael Dukakis's anti-gay foster care policy in 1985.