Catholic cardinal withdraws apology for covering up sex abuse
In an interview this week with Connecticut Magazine, Cardinal Edward Egan, withdrew his 2002 apology for the Church’s handling of the sex-abuse scandal, which was once read in all New York parishes.
A decade after that letter, the former archbishop of New York, and former bishop of Bridgeport, now describes the handling of the priest-abuse crisis under his watch as “incredibly good.” He said of the letter, “I never should have said that,” and added, “I don’t think we did anything wrong.”
“I never had one of these sex abuse cases.” he said, before adding pompously, “If you have another bishop in the United States who has the record I have, I’d be happy to know who he is.” He also claimed that the Church had no obligation to report abuse to the civil authorities.
It’s interesting that so many self-proclaimed Christians, the ones who get a lot of attention or claim to be so religiously devout, seem like they’ve never quite got the hang of being Christlike. Mahatma Gandhi said, I like your Christ but not your Christians and most of us agree with him completely.
And while we’re on the subject of the Catholic Church, have you caught the ‘row’ over contraception in health care plans that’s been going on lately?
Charles P. Pierce says,
In arguing for the existence of some mythical “Catholic backlash” to the Obama administration’s decision to require that contraception be included in any health plans sanctioned under the Affordable Care Act, Weigel said the following:
“This has struck a tribal nerve in Catholicism,” Catholic scholar George Weigel said to Chuck Todd on the Daily Rundown. “The Catholic Church has been beaten up over the last 10 or 11 years and I think Catholics are tired of the government and others beating up on the church.”
Holy mother of god, to coin a phrase. [...] And what are we talking about here?
The Church has been “beaten up” over the last 10 or 12 years because, at its highest possible echelons, it functioned as an international conspiracy to obstruct justice regarding the crime of sexual assault. In the old formulation, these crimes — which have still gone largely unpunished, as when Bernard Cardinal Law from Boston beat feet to his sinecure at the Basilica Of Our Lady Of The Bullshit Alibi in Rome — were such a “scandal to the faithful” that most of the Catholic laity, here and around the world, were fundamentally disgusted by the sub-primate morality of many of the primates in question. Most Catholics I know don’t believe the Church has taken a beating over the last decade; in fact, they believe a lot of ermined layabouts haven’t gotten half of what they deserve. They’re certainly not as prepared as Weigel apparently is to link the pale and sporadic justice dealt out to the victims of the hierarchy’s monstrous crimes to the current politically driven foolishness regarding whether or not Catholic institutions should have to choose between obeying the law or abandoning some tax breaks. If the White House surrenders in any way to this nonsense, somebody in the political operation should be cleaning out his desk by the end of business today. There is no risk in sticking to your guns here. Unless, of course, E. J. Dionne plans to vote a couple of million times next November.
Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. Also Gandhi, if memory serves….
Nope, all those priests accused of abuse have done nothing wrong. Now, all those sinful women taking the Pill is another story….