Quote of the Day: Andrew Sullivan on the Catholic Bishops and Contraception

I have expressed a number of times that I am dumbfounded that anyone with a shred of moral fiber can give deference to much less swear allegiance to the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church who have demonstrated time and time again their complete moral bankruptcy. Apparently, I am not the only one who holds this belief. Here's a portion of what Andrew Sullivan had to say about the recently fabricated controversy over the inclusion of contraception in prescription health care coverage:

If you really oppose abortion, you should back contraception, especially for those women least likely to afford it outside health insurance plans. But the new rigid fundamentalism of the John Paul II and Benedict XVI hierarchy cannot allow such moral trade-offs. But trading off the rape of children for the reputation of the church? Suddenly they get pragmatic.

I'm sorry but I find the protectors of child rapists preaching to women about contraception to be a moral obscenity. When all the implicated bishops and the Pope resign, their replacements will have standing to preach.

Meanwhile, in Delaware, the victims of sexual abuse are about to make public documents secured during litigation. And what do they reveal? That high ups in the diocese were involved in cover ups and protecting molesters. Here are highlights from the San Antonio Express News:

Victims of priest sex abuse called on Catholic church leaders in Wilmington on Wednesday to resign in light of internal church records documenting how church leaders handled pedophile priests.

The records were required to be released to abuse victims as part of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington's bankruptcy reorganization plan, which was approved by a Delaware bankruptcy judge last year.

Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org said at least three high-ranking church officials responsible for the Wilmington diocese's efforts to conceal the priest abuse scandal still work for the diocese and should resign. They are vicar general for administration Monsignor J. Thomas Cini, vicar for priests Monsignor Clement Lemon, and vicar general for pastoral services Monsignor Joseph Rebman.

Besides calling for the resignations of the three officials, victims' advocates also called on the bishop to publicly address the "complicity" of his predecessors, Michael Saltarelli and Robert Mulvee, in the priest abuse scandal.

Asking the Catholic bishops for guidance on issues of morality is ridiculous. Many of them belong behind bars and at best qualify as amoral.