More Land Mines in Catholic Church Sex Abuse Cover Up

Frankly, I find it more than just that on the heels of the Roman Catholic Church's mobilization against marriage equality in Maine, a new media focus seems to be building on the deliberate sins of high clerics in covering up the sexual abuse of minors - and the fact that none of them have been held properly accountable. A fact that the New York Times took note of in its main editorial yesterday. Moreover, the Times noted the moral failure to call those responsible for cover ups to account. Defenders of the Church will cite sexual abuse in the public schools and any manner of excuse rather than concede that the Church hierarchy is a moral cesspool. Unlike the public schools, the Church holds itself up to judge others and pontificates on who is worthy of Heaven and who is worthy of Hell. Here are some editorial highlights:

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In the end it was not the power of repentance or compassion that compelled the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., to release more than 12,000 pages of documents relating to lawsuits alleging decades of sexual abuse of children by its priests. It was a court order. The diocese had spent seven years fighting a lawsuit brought by The New York Times and three other newspapers to unseal the records in 23 lawsuits involving accusations against seven priests.

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The accounts of priests preying on children, being moved among parishes and shielded by their bishops while their accusers were ignored or bullied into silence, are a familiar, awful story. But still it is hard not to feel a chill reading the testimony from two depositions given in 1997 and 1999 by Edward Egan, who was then bishop of Bridgeport and later named a cardinal and archbishop of New York. As he skirmishes with lawyers, he betrays a distressing tendency to disbelieve accusers and to shuck off blame.
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Absent in those pages is a sense of understanding of the true scope of the tragedy. Compare Bishop Egan’s words with those of the archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, who, after the release of a recent report detailing years of abuse and cover-ups in Ireland, said:
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“The sexual abuse of a child is and always was a crime in civil law; it is and always was a crime in canon law; it is and always was grievously sinful. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of the report is that while church leaders — bishops and religious superiors — failed, almost every parent who came to the diocese to report abuse clearly understood the awfulness of what was involved.”
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Meanwhile, half way across the USA the failure of former Archbishop Rembert Weakland (pictured above) is being highlighted in newly released depositions in which the good archbishop admits to destroying reports of sexual abuse. The callousness is shocking, but all too typical of the morally bankrupt Catholic Church leadership. Here are some highlights from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

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Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland routinely shredded copies of weekly reports about sexual abuse by priests, according to formerly sealed testimony turned over to Milwaukee County's district attorney on Thursday. In a 1993 deposition, Weakland admitted destroying copies of the reports in his office, according to a partial transcript of the deposition released by Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
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Peter Isely, SNAP's Midwest director, turned over the partial transcript, as well as portions of the logs to which Weakland was referring, to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and asked him to review them for any possible criminal violations. Chisholm accepted the records and promised a thorough review.
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Isely said SNAP also will ask Archbishop-designate Jerome Listecki to censure and discipline Weakland and anyone else who may have been involved in covering up sex abuse by clergy. He said Listecki has refused to say whether he would review why the Diocese of La Crosse, where he is bishop, has cleared more clergy accused of abuse than most dioceses. Listecki told Wisconsin Public Radio that he did not have enough time left in his term as bishop in La Crosse and that, besides, it was the holiday season.
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Once again, why does anyone still listen to the Church's bishops? In particular, why do elected officials even acknowledge their statements? Many of them ought to be behind bars in my opinion.