Where the Rubber Hits the Road

Want to know why Archbishop Chaput is the right choice to clean up the mess in Philadelphia and why he'll bring a renaissance to the Catholic Church there? Then this article is for you! New Philadelphia archbishop says church singled out unfairly on sex abuse | GazetteNET

This is an article about R. Seth Williams, the District Attorney in Philadelphia who has laid charges not only against some predator priests, but also against the diocesan official who did not remove them from ministry but simply moved them to other parishes (where they sadly found more victims to abuse). I note that he is a practicing Catholic and sees his actions as aiding the Church in ridding itself of these abusers and their enablers. Avenging Altar Boy - NYTimes.com

SIGH... When will the Bishop's finally get it through their heads that they can no longer rely on 'in-house' investigations of sexual abuse allegations. The protocol in Canada and the USA is supposed to include an automatic referral to civil authorities to investigate. Yes, some priests will fall victim to false allegations, but we should have enough faith in the justice system that the names of anyone falsely accused will be cleared. Besides this, the Church has no one but itself to blame for putting priests in this dangerous position. If the Bishops would have dealt with these issues properly in the first place, innocent priests would not be in such a tenuous position. It is not the priests who are letting the Church down. It's the Bishops! Whispers in the Loggia: In Grand Jury's Wake, "We Have Fallen Short"

IF these events happened after the Diocese committed to transparency and cooperation (2002 at the latest with the creation of the Dallas Protocols) and accepted the requirement of immediate suspension of the priest involved and reporting of the allegation to the Police, then 'charge away'. If Catholic leaders today commit such an offense as not following the current laws and protocols they should and no doubt will be charged and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. IF HOWEVER these events took place prior to 2002, in a Diocese that still was guided by the ethos of putting the interests of preserving the taint of scandal rather than the legitimate questions of justice and protection for the victims of these predators, then it is little more than an example of 'piling on' by the NYT. We all know that the Church hierarchy acted abominably prior to getting caught with the pants down, figuratively, literally, legally and morally before finally being humiliated into a...