“Most Catholics are greeting the resignation of Cardinal Law with a sigh of relief and sadness. While no one blames Cardinal Law for the entire scandal in the Church, his departure nonetheless represents an important step towards recapturing the trust of the laity. Now the mending process can proceed with alacrity.
“There is a small, but vocal, minority for whom nothing will ever satisfy. SNAP president Barbara Blaine, ex-priest and psychotherapist Richard Sipe and victims’ attorney Mitchell Garabedian are already whining and making new demands. Worse, some are given to reckless charges against the Church. Take, for example, the recent remarks of a radical group called the Coalition of Catholics and Survivors. They have accused the pope of ordering a coverup of the sex-abuse allegations.
“Their so-called smoking gun theory boils down to this: the pope in 1999 recommended that a defrocked priest ought not return to the area where he committed his offenses. They take this eminently sensible advice and use it as a hammer to bludgeon the pope. Just so everyone understands what’s going on here, what the pope did was to say that a former priest—someone who had been returned to the status of a layman—ought to start a new life in a new location. Isn’t this what parole boards recommend to released inmates—that they not return to the neighborhood that nurtured their maladies? Shame on Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly and others for disseminating this mindless charge.
“Finally, some are already beating the war drums going after bishops of other dioceses. This is absurd: everyone knows that no other diocese in the nation was qualitatively or quantitatively comparable to Boston. To suggest otherwise is to play into the hands of Fifth-Column Catholics.”
I have no quibble with your rebuke of these people--I'm sure you're right; they likely won't ever be satisfied, just as the "civil rights" folks will never admit that they've won the fight because the fight becomes an end in itself, not a means to an end--but at least you can use a more accurate and less incendiary term than "bigot."
Isn’t this what parole boards recommend to released inmates—that they not return to the neighborhood that nurtured their maladies?
The 'neighborhood' did not nurture his maladies. Something else did. He needs to be monitored as he will certainly assault again. Sending the abuser away is either an attempt to keep him away from his victims, keep him away from authorities, or prevent news of his abuses from getting to the press.
What about the victims...and what about having the guilty held accountable under the rule of Law?
Isn’t this what parole boards recommend to released inmates—that they not return to the neighborhood that nurtured their maladies? Shame on Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas Reilly and others for disseminating this mindless charge.
Again, you confuse the situation...these Priests were never held accountable, and their crimes were hidden! Law and the RCC HID THEM from the public, the Law, and the congregations they shuffled them to and from!
Remember that Law recommended one pedophile/homo Priest to be a Chaplain in the Air Force, and stated in his letter of recommendation that there "was nothing in the Priest's background that would prevent him from working with children"?
How do you answer this, o Blinders-MK I wearer? And while you are answering that, answer this...
Would YOU let YOUR kid alone with a Priest now...especially a "new transfer"?
If (I will give him the benefit of the doubt) did not know about sexual abuse cases, then a lot of high ranking people in the Vatican surely did, as someone had to authorize million dollar payments.
Therefore he is responsible for their actions as well as the actual priests that committed the crime, if he does nothing, or does not try to find out what is going on, then he is just as guilty. (That’s why you need people at the top of organisations that are physically and mentally capable of doing their job).
However it seems some high-ranking people at the top of the Vatican, think they get more sympathy (and in turn money, from the followers) with an old man, who can barley speak. If he were physically and mentally able, the press would want to speak to him and not his aids.
Therefore I suggest the best thing to do for all concerned is for the Pope to announce the disbandment of the Catholic Church and all its assets and then he should step down, and become the last Pope of the Catholic Church, as we know it.
Thereby fulfilling the 3rd prophesy of Fatima, that John Paul would be the last Pope of the Catholic Church and would walk on its ruins.
If he can not control the integrity of his institution then he is negligent or a fool.
Perhaps, Bill.
On the other hand, "everybody knows" that Bill Donahue of Catholic League is heavy on rhetoric and sometimes under-supplied with facts.
Maybe Mr. Donahue will personally guarantee the cleanliness of all the rest of America's dioceses--like, for example, L.A., SFO, and Chicago.
I believe Law is evil.
How he stayed in a position of power as long as he did is sick. Do you remember the comment about how "you treat the least...".
What if several priest had taken the Pope into a room and tortured him to the point that his life became a nightmare for years ... and then Cardinal Law covered for the monsters and worked so they could continue doing damage to the Pope and others? Well, that's what was allowed and it was worse than doing it to the Pope because it was done to children -- the most innocent among us.
People are not judged on how they treat the powerful, the wealthy or the famous, but how they treat the least among us.
Cardinal Law was evil and so were the "priests" who raped children, and the Catholics who let this go on and on and on. It's so sick.
Had the defrocked priest been prosecuted to the full extent of the law? Did he serve jail time? Or was he simply defrocked and released into society anonymously? If so, then a definite coverup was going on, and that is the problem. Sex offenders have to register as such. If a priest was simply defrocked and sent back into society, then how would that society know that they had a child molester (or whatever he was) in their midst?
These molestations have not been treated as a crime by the Church. Priests who molest need to be prosecuted and serve jail time. Not just released into the public into a new location. Sorry, Mr. Donahue, but releasing a former-priest/child-molester into a new location just isn't good enough. They also need to serve jail time, and then register as sex offenders in their new location.
It seems that the Church is so desperate for nuns & priests that they have been willing to overlook sexual crimes among their clergy. Or, they don't want to air their dirty laundry in public (so to speak). Or, they just don't consider sexual crimes to be that serious. Whatever the reasons, it is a real tragedy.
And, the coverup is just as bad as the crime.
That is kind of the problem, isn't it, people do understand what went on here, too bad many Catholics cannot grasp the fact that it is very strange to the rest of us why this man was not turned over to the law for a long jail term, from which he would emerge actually parolled.
There was no punishment, no justice for the victim, no charges laid, no daylight allowed to shine on this darkness, no..no..that was not to be allowed and that is what we all comprehend very clearly. Not only that was not allowed but the Pope basically said, "Hey, if no body knows about it and it stays covered up, let him stick around".
No matter how much lipstick you put on this pig, it won't sell in the open market. Maybe this is how Catholics and the Pope believe in dealing with molesters, hide them from their just civil punishment, bury the victim in silence, it's not how the rest of civil society operates however.