The Daily Dispatch
We've long been told that two wrongs don't make a right. And no amount of wrongheadedness can make the world right, either.
The Catholic Church has dropped a Brazilian singer who promoted condom use in an anti-AIDS campaign from the lineup of next month's benefit Christmas concert at the Vatican. Daniela Mercury was dismissed because her statements in the public health campaign went “against the moral doctrine of the church,” said Eligio Ermeti, a spokesman for the agency organizing the event.
There's no doubt that is true. The Catholic Church disapproves of contraceptives - and, of course, premarital sex - so telling someone to use a condom flies in the face of the church's beliefs. And we suppose it is unsurprising, though unnecessarily rigid, for the church to drop Mercury from its performance.
However, the Vatican felt the move was necessary because of the crass actions of American singer Lauryn Hill two years ago at the same concert. Hill deviated from the script to criticize the church and its leaders over much-publicized child sex abuse by certain Catholic priests.
It is impossible to defend the church in the sex abuse allegations. Evidence clearly shows that some priests abused young parishioners, and that the church often took action to cover up the abuse while keeping the rogue priests in service.