February 11, 2006

Archdiocese should review rules of penance

MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

By Ana Menendezamenendez@MiamiHerald.com
The headquarters of the Archdiocese of Miami enjoys the kind of security that would shame a medieval fortress. Thursday, Ann Brentwood tried and failed to breach the ramparts.
Brentwood, a member of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, was trying to deliver a message to Archbishop John Favalora: Stop blaming the victim.
''It is really down and dirty and unfair and reprehensible,'' she said.
When a Catholic priest was arrested and charged with raping a boy, the Archdiocese initially responded with prayers. But the comfort of faith seems to go only so far in a soulless, litigious society. So a few days later, church leaders unveiled their legal strategy: The boy, who was 10 at the time, could be accountable for ``his own negligence.''
Is irony one of the deadly sins? The Catholic Church that so efficiently blessed millions of schoolchildren with everlasting guilt now hesitates before its own mea culpa.

Posted by kshaw at February 11, 2006 12:28 PM