Can the Roman Catholic Bishops Ever be Trusted?

Anne M. Burke is a justice on the Illinois Supreme Court and former interim chairwoman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops National Review Board. In an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune on Friday she gave a no holds barred smack down of the U.S. Catholic Bishops and by implication the Pope as well. And this just days before the ridiculous beatification of John Paul II who turned a blind eye to the rape and molestation of children and youth for over two decades. The point that Burke makes is that given the continued behavior of the bishops in contrast to their lip service of remorse and concern for the safety of children displays that they are simply not to be believed. It's a point that I have tried to make for many years at this point - and why I continually ask Catholics how they can continue to bankroll such morally challenged bastards.? Similarly, why does anyone listen to their disingenuous attacks on gay marriage when they have shown themselves to be morally bankrupt? Here are highlights from Burke's column:
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Just when it appeared that the fallout over the abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church could not get any worse, another shoe dropped in Philadelphia.
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It appears that even after years of investigation of child abuse by priests, the cover-up of that abuse has been further institutionalized. Some of the alleged crimes in Philadelphia transpired while the National Review Board of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, on which I served, was trying to get to the truth of the scandal. The indicted monsignor is accused of turning a blind eye to things in his chancery office. Of course, to blame a clerical official, and not his archbishop, of such deviousness presents a mistaken analysis of how the church works.
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[T]he news that more than 24 active priests in Philadelphia face abuse accusations, and that some were allowed to remain in active ministry after accusations were made against them years ago, raises new fears. For me, these are much more than institutional nightmares. This makes me wonder what kind of people we are dealing with when we engage the bishops. How is it that they say one thing and secretly intend something else? Are they ever to be trusted?
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I remember the sometimes vicious response some members of the church hierarchy gave to the National Review Board when we were doing our work some years ago. Cardinal Edward Egan, the former archbishop of New York, actually wanted to ban us from his fiefdom, as if we were coming from some rival kingdom to challenge his rule. All the events of our investigation and audit get colored with new meaning in light of the charges in Philadelphia. Little has changed.
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I traveled on St. Patrick's feast day this year to Dublin [Ireland] for a law conference . . . . My hosts told me that the abuse scandal in the church in Ireland and the poor response from the Vatican seemed to have sealed the fate of Catholicism in Ireland for some time to come. A government investigation into the horror of Irish clerical abuse — both sexual and physical — brought everything to the surface. All the usual elements were there, thanks to the Irish bishops — cover-up, lying, bullying, threats, the hiding of evidence, the sealing of witness testimony, and most of all the willingness to let the guilty clergy get away with the crime.
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I believe that the virtue of truthfulness has been in trouble for a long time in the Catholic Church. Who could ever see this coming? Not me. I was an obedient Catholic schoolgirl, a true believer. It is not easy for us to unlearn being Catholic. I, for one, don't want to. But I expect truthfulness at all costs from our leadership. If that cannot be supplied then we must go back to the drawing board. Do we not have the right to truthfulness?
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[W]e must be blunt with the Holy Father and the other men who continue by either business as usual, or misguided loyalty, to permit the unspeakable to occur.