HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------April 14, 2002
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A Clerical Error
By MAUREEN DOWD
he text (and annotated subtext) from a letter sent on Friday by
Cardinal Bernard Law to Boston priests:
My dear brother priests (there will be sisters when hell freezes over):
The expression of support and the assurance of prayer which have come from so many of you in recent weeks have been, for me, a source of strength and consolation.
(Judases! The polls in that pagan fishwrap Boston Globe say 119 percent of Catholics want me to pack up my vestments. But Rome doesn't care a fig about the hurt feelings of spoiled, sex-obsessed Americans. The Holy See likes me just the way I am.)
If ever there were a time when the unity in ministry which is ours through ordination should be evident, it is now. (Ecumenical doubletalk — the Vatican will love it.)
The case of Father Paul Shanley is particularly troubling for us.
(If only that showboat had kept his mouth shut. But no, Father Paul had to hail the joys of sex with children at a meeting of the North American Man-Boy Love Association.)
For me personally, it has brought home with painful clarity how inadequate our record-keeping has been.
(The only clerical error was when heathens began rummaging in our secret clerical business.)
Like many of you, I have had the . . . painful experience of meetings with those who have been abused as children, as well as with their parents, spouses and other family members.
(Will they ever stop whining?)
The unbelievable horror of these accounts can only dimly reflect the awful and often ongoing pain of the reality.
(Thank heavens Rome cares more about the third world. Who needs Boston when you've got Lagos?)
Each of these encounters makes me more determined than ever to do all in my power to ensure . . . that no child is ever abused again by a priest in this archdiocese.
(This is killing us with big Catholic donors. Those guys are furious that I transferred Father Geoghan into their parishes, where he could get at their little ones. Fund-raising idea: A substantial donation will guarantee that no pedophile priest teaches catechism to your kids.)
Obviously, the best of policies cannot provide an infallible assurance.
(My only policy was to move those sick fathers around fast.)
Looking back, I see that we were too focused on the individual components of each case, when we should have been more focused on the protection of children.
(Naturally, I was trying to limit the legal damages and shield the image of the church. But those kids grew up to be tattletales.)
There was a time many years ago when instances of sexual abuse of children were viewed almost exclusively as moral failures.
(After Father Paul came on to that guy, rhapsodizing about sadomasochism, I told him to say 10 Hail Marys and three Our Fathers. Didn't take. After he got caught running a gay bed and breakfast in Palm Springs, I told him to say a novena.)
In more recent years . . . there has been a general recognition that such cases reflect a psychological and emotional pathology.
(I'm not an idiot. I knew that long before 1995, when I pushed Father Paul off on the Archdiocese of New York to be acting director of a Catholic guest house where students stayed. He was gleeful — calling it a "Ronald McDonald kind of place." I told him to say a rosary.)
We have pledged to report all allegations going forward and have provided the names of all priests against whom a credible allegation has been made, going back 53 years.
(Tom Reilly, the attorney general, was making noises about slapping me with criminal charges. He can go get Communion in Rhode Island.)
There is much more all of us need to learn about this pathology so that we can protect the children.
(Who knew that priests' dating 11-year-olds was wrong? We need to commission a major study. Is it all right when they're 12?)
My desire is to serve this archdiocese . . . with every fiber of my being.
(I miss the good old days when Catholics just left if they were mad at the church, as in the late 1960's, when the pope condemned contraception. Now they want me to leave.)
I depend . . . on your prayers . . . in these days so trying to us all. (Go be Scientologists for all I care.)
I am sincerely yours in Christ,
Bernard Cardinal Law (Lawless)
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