Say 'Abu Ghraib' in Latin
I guess you should put me into the third class of Catholics according to the Dallas Morning News' editorial excoriating the Church for the sex abuse scandal: I feel powerless. But here's a news flash for you: I always have. What else is new? That's part of being Catholic.
You may be asking, "The sex abuse scandal?" Yes, it's still alive.
In the Romanesque version of the Abu Ghraib story, the abuse goes on and the press is all too delighted to tell us about it. It smells like 1974 all over again... not content to come close to destroying the American Presidency, the press sets its sights on the papal throne.
Don't get me wrong, it's heinous what some priests have done, and it is compounded by the apparent complicity of certain bishops. But the press isn't in this for Truth alone. Nowhere in the editorial does it even suggest that some of these men might not be guilty - even though some of them haven't even had a trial yet. In the midst of a furor over wrongful prosecutions despite DNA evidence proving otherwise, you'd think some people carrying on a crusade for Truth might consider that at least some of the adults pointing the finger of blame for their screwed up lives might just happen to be lying about what happened five, ten and twenty years ago. And we're still talking about a disgraceful minority of the priests and bishops.
That said, many if not most of these cases are not in doubt, and many times bishops have shuttled priests from parish to parish despite knowing full well what they have done. The problems need to be rooted out and excised from Mother Church. But you're not going to get lay Catholics who remain active in the Church to foment a revolution from within. We're the ones who respect and adore the Church for taking hundreds of years to come to a conclusion about something, despite the pressure of a modern age that demands things get done yesterday.
The church will heal, but don't expect it on your timetable. You want "fast"... we'll give you fasting.
UPDATE: Robert Novak offers some (as usual) pessimistic words about freedom of speech in churches.
