More Catholic Church Hypocrisy

Also in the Virginian Pilot today, a story about a local man from Virginia Beach who is suing the Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont:

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) -- A man who says he was molested by a priest 30 years ago broke down in tears Friday as a former church official read aloud in court a letter he wrote to the church, describing the incidents. James Turner, 46, of Virginia Beach, Va., who is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington for negligent supervision, hung his head and sobbed into a handkerchief as former Vicar General Rev. Wendell Searles read the letter on the witness stand.

Searles, 78, the Diocese's former No. 2 man, said he acted as the church's point person on sex abuse cases before retiring and fielded Turner's initial complaint to the church. . . . Searles acknowledged that for years, the church protected the privacy of priests who had been accused, shielding them by keeping secret allegations made against them. O'Neill pressed him about whether the church had done so with Willis, who was later convicted in a 1981 church tribunal and declared "infamous." "Yes, we wanted to protect his privacy," Searles said.

And yet none of the Church hierarchy has been punished. Bishops and cardinals get to continue to live as potentates and then retire on Church funded pensions. These people have no shame and in any other area, civilian or military (well, except perhaps under Chimperator Bush's regime), such dereliction by superiors would result in firing and other severe consequences. Sadly, not under the Nazi Pope (shown at left in his red Prada shoes) or his predecessors who seem to have specialized in false piety.