PHILADELPHIA (PA)
San Luis Obispo Tribune
BY CARRIE BUDOFF
Knight Ridder Newspapers
PHILADELPHIA - (KRT) - Sen. Rick Santorum's words are giving him trouble. Again.
This time, the reemergence of three-year-old comments linking Boston liberalism with the Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals has Beantown, victim advocates, and Democrats in Congress boiling.
"Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected," Santorum, R-Pa., the No. 3 Senate leader, wrote for Catholic Online in July 2002. "While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm."
The column, recently picked up by newspaper columnists and circulated on the Internet, prompted Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., to demand an apology Wednesday from the two-term senator.