Let me try this again

I put up a post on June 27 detailing how the execrable Cardinal Law, formerly in charge of the Boston Archdiocese, has been put out to pasture in splendor and luxury at the Vatican despite being stone-cold guilty of covering up for and protecting pedophiles for decades. (That's usually called "being an accessory to a crime" but Law somehow escaped legal sanctions for his actions.) That post generated quite a bit of discussion on another forum. I have been accused of anti-Catholic bigotry by some people during that discussion. Let me try to clear up my views.

I don't believe that I'm anti-Catholic. I hope not, anyway. I am not against individual Catholics or their religion at all, and I truly think their beliefs and practices are sincere and heartfelt at the worshipper level. I will caution them that the fact that the Office of the Inquisition is still in business, plus the issuing of an edict by Pope Benedict the other day stating that "Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches", does give outsiders pause, and gives them the impression that the Catholic Church isn't very tolerant of other views. Whatever. Catholics can believe what they want, and that's perfectly fine by me.

What I am against, however, is the institution of the Catholic Church, the one that conspired for decades to hush up child abuse by its priests, going so far as to smear the victims themselves, calling them liars and worse. Yes, other religions have had problems with their ministers having trouble keeping their hands to themselves. None, however, has had anywhere near the number of problem clerics as the Catholic Church, and no other religion has had so many top officials trying to cover up their clerics' culpability, or resisted taking responsibility so zealously for that coverup, as the Catholic Church has. Other groups have had problems as well, so don't think I'm ignoring them, either. The Boy Scouts of America is another organization that has had trouble admitting its liability in such cases. I have a personal score to settle with them, but that's a subject for another day.

On July 15, in yet another admission of guilt, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles decided to settle the lawsuits of more than 500 plaintiffs for somewhere north of 660 million dollars. To me, the fact that they settled shows that they were worried both about losing even more money at trial, and more importantly, that the shameful actions of the church heirarchy were going to be exposed publicly for all to see. This adds to the tidal wave of settlements that has been going on across the U.S.:

"According to a tally prepared by the Los Angeles Times, the previous largest settlement of abuse cases in the United States since 2002 was the $157 million the Boston Archdiocese agreed to pay to 983 claimants in several different settlement agreements. The Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., agreed to pay $129 million to 315 claimants; the Diocese of Orange, Calif., agreed to pay $100 million to 90 claimants, and the Diocese of Covington, Ky., settled with 350 claimants for $85 million."

Reading the article, I found a remarkable statement by the lawyer for the Archdiocese, Michael Hennigan:

"I'd like to say that the church would have been reformed without these cases, but I don't know that's true [sic],"

Think about that. The church's own attorney thinks that it would never have gotten itself cleaned up without the brave victims coming forward and holding the church responsible for its actions. The denials and coverups would have continued, and justice would never have been served on the ones responsible for this situation.

Regretfully, the top guy in L.A., Cardinal Mahony, still doesn't seem to get it:

"Cardinal Mahony said the new settlement and the one for $60 million announced in November "will have very serious and painful consequences for the archdiocese." He said the archdiocese will re-evaluate all ministries and services, "since we will not be able to offer them at the same levels as in the past.'"

Well, whose fault is that, Cardinal? Please stop with the self-pity. You should count yourself lucky that you're not working out of an office at the local Greyhound bus station. Come to think of it, you might actually do more good there than in your regal home.

As a victim of sexual molestation who struggles daily with the aftereffects, even 20 years after the fact, I take this subject deadly seriously. I apologize if anyone took personal offense at my previous post, but I stand by my comments, as well as my stance about not darkening the door of a Catholic Church ever again.