Posted on 07/13/2005 3:45:32 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON -- Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, refused yesterday to back off on his earlier statements connecting Boston's ''liberalism" with the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal, saying that the city's ''sexual license" and ''sexual freedom" nurtured an environment where sexual abuse would occur.
''The basic liberal attitude in that area . . . has an impact on people's behavior," Santorum said in an interview yesterday at the Capitol.
''If you have a world view that I'm describing [about Boston] . . . that affirms alternative views of sexuality, that can lead to a lot of people taking it the wrong way," Santorum said.
Santorum, a leader among Christian conservatives, was responding to questions about remarks he made three years ago on a website called Catholic Online. In those comments, Santorum said, ''It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
The junior senator is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and is considered a possible candidate for his party's presidential nomination in 2008, if he wins reelection to a third Senate term next year.
''I was just saying that there's an attitude that is very open to sexual freedom that is more predominant" in Boston, Santorum said yesterday. Reminded that the sexual abuse occurred across the country, Santorum said that ''at the time [in 2002], there was an indication that there was more of a problem there" in Boston.
The senator's words sparked instant reaction from Massachusetts political leaders, who ridiculed Santorum's suggestion that priests were driven to abuse children by the city's liberal culture.
US Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, called Santorum ''a jerk" and pointed out...
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
LOL! Rick's right.
I wish I had the time to go back and look through 1980s/90s copies of the Glob. When the priestly sexual abuse scandal first came to light in the '80s and '90s, the Glob praised Cardinal Law effusively for choosing to treat these priests with psychological counseling.
I remember it very clearly. I also remember thinking, these bastards are going to come down on him when this policy fails.
And here we are.
Having control of the presses makes it easy to rewrite history.
Well... we know that Peter's the former head of Massport who lost his job when a Herald photographer spotted him on a yacht, tooling around Boston harbor with some topless bimbo, while "on duty."
Peter's a little on the wishy-washy, RINO side.
????
McCain's comment shows a wicked sense of humor.
Boston taking offense to this is like Democrats whining about being called girlie men by Arnold.
at LAST!!!
We just MAY have found Us-Selves an Iron-spined Republican in the United States Senate after all.
Slap 'em Bawst-un's der Good, "Stonewall" Santorum!!
I hope you are feeling better now. Should I put the coffee on in order to prevent future attackzzzzzzzZZZZZZ
They actually seemed never to have heard of it. It's not the first time they've chosen a hot-button issue they know nothing about.
so people tend to act in deviant ways when they are taught that perversion is cause for celebration? For speaking this obvious truth, Santorum is to be crucified?
He's absolutely right. It is no coincidence that NAMBLA exists in our current leftist-dominated popular culture.
I'm as repelled by the liberals and liberalism that infect the entire Boston area. But as a native and a Catholic I can tell you that Santorum is dead wrong on this. The Catholic church is the dominant religion around here, hands down. The archdiocese collected more money and held more valuable property than anyone in the region. With all this money came power and the power corrupted. The cardinals shifted the pedophiles around because they knew no one would question them. Not the parishoners (from whom they demanded religious loyalty) nor the secular authorities (who feared their power and political clout). This had nothing to do with liberalism and everything to do with money and perversion. I'm disappointed that the Senator felt the need to make such an ignorant comment.
1 +1 = 2.
This isn't rocket science--The Senator is correct (even though he was a TOTAL TRAITOR) for backing Arlen Sphincter in the Republican primary).
Of course, with the RATs, 1 +1 = a lie.
LOL! Surely, you are having delusions!
"Iron-spined?"
Mr. "Iron-spine" backed Arlen "RINO Marxist Traitor" Sphincter in the Republican primary against a very decent, strong conservative.
Conservative Catholics question past donations by bishops' lobbyist***The new lobbyist for the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts has in the past given money to lawmakers who support abortion rights and same-sex marriage, causing concern among some conservative Catholics.
But the lobbyist, Edward F. Saunders Jr., says the contributions, made when he was lobbying for credit unions, simply reflect ''the nature of the business," and some conservative Catholics say the contributions are to be expected.
The mini-controversy, playing out largely in the form of an e-mail whisper campaign and blog entries, reflects a larger debate within Catholicism over how the church hierarchy should relate to the sizable fraction of Catholic laypeople who disagree with or act against church teachings. Some conservatives have criticized the appointment to church panels of Catholics who support abortion rights or gay marriage, and a few bishops, although none in Massachusetts, have suggested that they would deny Communion to such Catholics.
Saunders, a registered Democrat and a longtime lobbyist on Beacon Hill, declined to discuss his personal views on social issues, saying only, ''Whatever the position of the church is, that's my position."
Asked about his contributions, Saunders said, ''You can't be a legislative agent today and not participate in many of those things.
''I've been around the State House for close to 20 years, and if you go back through the years, you can see the relationships I've developed, and many of them are personal friendships," he said. ''But I was wearing a different hat, representing the credit union industry, and I'm wearing a different hat now."
Saunders said that he had not discussed political contributions with the Massachusetts bishops who hired him and that any future contributions ''will have to be evaluated at that time." Saunders, who starts his job as executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference on July 25, will represent the bishops of Boston, Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester............................***
Having grown up in the area, I saw much of what he speaks of. Many people do have a hostile attitude toward traditional morality, even within the church; Father Drinan is not an aberration.
Pete is no Reagan-Republican. It is not surprising he feels this way. Have they brought on Kennedy, Cellucci, the devout Roman Catholics, to comment?
Santorum's comment is stupid. The priest sex scandals in Boston went back to the 1960s, and more importantly, similar scandals have popped up everywhere in the country, including some of the most conservative states out there.
The Boston scandals have gotten the most attention because this is a disproportionately Catholic city with a large number of churches and priests and because the Boston Globe is constantly at war with the church and made the story into a huge deal. It was a huge deal regardless of the newspaper's motives or degree of coverage.
Looking for exterior causes or saying "it can't happen here because we're a conservative state" is going to lead to many more kids being molested.
By attendance only. If it were a Roman Catholic area, Plymouth County never would have reelected Gerry Studds or supported Edward Kennedy. Paul Shanley, Marjory Eagan and Father Drinan are representative of too many Bay Staters who claim to be Roman Catholic.
Right you are. But the Massachusetts-bashers are out in force and would rather not think that the same tragedy could--and often did--happen in their own backyards.
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