Suffer the Little Children

I was baptized a Catholic at the age of approximately 3 months, which is pretty much the custom among Catholics. I went to Catholic school through the 8th grade. I raised all of my three children in the faith, and even sent one through parochial schools through his high school years.I practiced Catholicism, going to mass each Sunday, until maybe 8 years ago when I had experienced enough hypocrisy to last a lifetime. I am now what you might call a lapsed Catholic, or Fallen one. While I won't go into ALL the reasons for this, I do want to comment upon the most egregious sins of the church - pedophilia.

When the Pope came out last week and took some responsibility for the most recent scandals involving the Catholic Church and it's priests and bishops involved in the molestation of boys over the years, I had a brief glimmer of hope. What he said was that the blame shouldn't be borne by the media as had been strongly suggested by his underlings and others connected with the Roman Catholic church, rather the church should accept the blame itself for it's failures. How refreshing, I thought. It's about time, I thought. For far too long, the church and it's leaders have either shifted the blame somewhere else, or simply ignored the problems that have been going on for decades. Now, I thought, we're getting somewhere.

Today, however, in scanning the Washington Post, as I do on a daily basis, I saw a story headline that raised the hackles on my neck. "Vatican Defense Centers on employment status of Bishops" read the article's headline. Obviously, I had to read it. The first sentence really says it all: "The Vatican prepared Monday to make its most detailed defense yet against claims that it is liable for U.S. bishops who allowed priests to molest children, saying bishops are not its employees and that a 1962 Vatican document did not require bishops to keep quiet."

A lawsuit had apparently been brought forth by three gentlemen in 2004 who were abused by priests decades ago and "...accuse the Vatican of negligence". The lawyer for the Vatican apparently contends that the "...bishops are not its employees because they are not paid by Rome, do not act on Rome's behalf and are not controlled day to day by the pope -- factors courts use to determine whether employers are liable for the actions of their workers."

Good Grief! So, Bishops, and/or Cardinals, "do not act on Rome's behalf and are not controlled day to day by the Pope..." Can they be serious? Just who calls the shots then? If a Bishop, or Cardinal wants to go his (Notice the "His" here as women will never have a place on the alter) own way on a policy (Liturgical) decision, you mean the Pope won't jerk his chain and bring him in line? Or require his resignation? For example, let's just say, a Bishop/cardinal tells his congregation that birth control is okay as far as he is concerned - condoms, etc. This, of course is NOT okay with Church teachings. So, the Pope finds out about this. He's not gonna reverse the local teaching? Gimme a Break.

In any case, they are using this argument to again deny any responsibility for what has been going on for decades - the molestation of innocent children by criminal priests. And, that, my friends, is what it is - CRIMINAL! I happen to know someone who was molested by a priest many years ago. He is still screwed up because of it - nearly 60 years later. It has ruined his life. If anyone else committed this crime, there would be no question. He would be arrested, tried, and in most cases, convicted of this heinous crime. But, the Catholic Church has been exempt from the law.

Instead, when bishops, cardinals and the Pope himself have been made aware of the crimes, they have hidden the criminals by transferring them to other parishes - sometimes multiple times. Isn't this a crime too? Aiding and abetting? So why are they above the law?

It seems to me that although God will eventually judge these men for their horrific sins against innocent children, we do need to both ensure justice here in our world and prevent further crimes from occurring to the vulnerable and trusting youth affected by these monsters.

The Pope, his Cardinals & Bishops, need to do more than just hire a fancy lawyer who utilizes loopholes in corporate law to get the church off the hook for paying out money to those who have been damaged by molestation. As with anything, they need to first admit it is a problem of the church. Then they need to find a way to stop it from happening in the future.

Old Fart Mike