Protection of Abusive Priests Continues in Philadelphia

Speaking of protectiong child rapist priests, the proverbial shit continues to hit the fan - and rightfully so - in Philadelphia where dozens of priests involved in sexual abuse continue to be in ministry in unsuspecting parishes. The Philadelphia Inquirer has an editorial and the New York Times has more on the outrageous (and morally bankrupt) behavior of the Catholic Church leadership in that city. Of course, the problem is anything but unique to Philadelphia and seems the norm as opposed to the exception to the rule when the Catholic Church hierarchy is involved. Meanwhile, a Catholic college has fired a gay priest who has no history of sexual misconduct. Talk about ass backwards priorities. Yet again I find myself asking how can any moral person can continue to be a practicing Catholic when it is so obvious that the institutional Church is rotten to the core including at the heart of the Vatican? First these highlights from the Times story:
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Three weeks after a scathing grand jury report said the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had provided safe haven to as many as 37 priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse or inappropriate behavior toward minors, most of those priests remain active in the ministry.
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The possibility that even one predatory priest, not to mention three dozen, might still be serving in parishes — “on duty in the archdiocese today, with open access to new young prey,” as the grand jury put it — has unnerved many Roman Catholics here and sent the church reeling in the latest and one of the most damning episodes in the American church since it became engulfed in the sexual abuse scandal nearly a decade ago.
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The situation in Philadelphia is “Boston reborn,” said David J. O’Brien, who teaches Catholic history at the University of Dayton.
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The church has not explained directly why these priests, most of whom were not publicly identified, are still active, though it is under intense pressure to do so. Cardinal Justin Rigali initially said there were no active priests with substantiated allegations against them, but six days later, he placed three of the priests, whose activities had been described in detail by the grand jury, on administrative leave.
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“The thing that is significant about Philadelphia is the assumption that the authorities had made changes and the system had been fixed,” said Terence McKiernan, the president of BishopAccountability.org, which archives documents from the abuse scandal in dioceses across the country. “But the headline is that in Philadelphia, the system is still broke.”
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[A]t least a few people who have said, ‘I’m not going to be giving to the church’ ” and that some were not fulfilling their pledges to give to the church’s capital campaign.
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As I have stated many times before, only massive losses of Church members - and more importantly, massive drops in donations are the only things that will force the Church to change. Any claims of contrition are clearly disingenuous bullshit aimed at calming the sheeple in the pews. Here are highlights of what the Inquirer had to say on the scandal:
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If officials of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia want to prove they really meant their apology published last week over the clergy sexual-abuse scandal, they should get behind a two-part legislative effort in Harrisburg to speed justice for victims of priests or any other predators.
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The raw details of the felony charges against two priests, one defrocked priest, and a parochial-school teacher included the raping and sodomizing of two altar boys. Meanwhile, the top official overseeing parish priests was charged with child endangerment for his role in assigning priests.
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Yet, incredibly, there was no sign this week that the archdiocese or its lobbying arm - the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference - plans to do the right thing and support the legislative reform effort, which should cover all wrongdoers and not just priests.
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Two Democratic state lawmakers from the city, Reps. Michael P. McGeehan and Louise Williams Bishop, introduced bills that would redress past wrongs, as well as better assure that no future victim of sexual abuse would be denied a day in court.
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Once opposed to the civil-suit window, McGeehan's conversion came due to the appalling revelations about the accused clergy and the grand jury finding that the archdiocese had kept as many as 37 clergymen in parishes despite abuse accusations. "We are sorry," the official church apology read. But, as scripture says: Know them by their works.
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Will the Church do the right thing and support the legislation? Of course not. Here in Virginia the Church rabidly opposed legislation that fortunately passed and extended the statute of limitations to 20 years.