BOSTON (MA)
Bay Windows
Sue Hyde
Officer, arrest that man in the sackcloth gown!
I refer, of course, to the Most Rev. Seán Patrick O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston. The very same Archbishop O’Malley who has decreed that Catholic Charities will cease and desist all work on adoptions in the state in order that the Archbishop shall not soil his hands by having contact with homosexuality.
I call for the arrest and detention of Archbishop O’Malley on three charges:
• Conspiring to endanger children by failing to put in place key reforms to detect and prevent sexual abuse of children by persons in his employ.
• Conspiring to avoid and circumvent Massachusetts non-discrimination laws and policies by precipitously withdrawing social services to hundreds of difficult-to-place children awaiting adoption in foster care and other out-of-home living situations.
• Repeated failure to pay local and state property taxes on extensive holdings in the Boston area and throughout the state.
On the first matter, the office of the Attorney General of Massachusetts has written a letter to Archbishop Seán pointing out that there is not yet a method of overseeing or tracking the whereabouts of allegedly abusive priests and that the Archdiocese has not completed sexual-abuse prevention programs for all children. Now let’s get this straight: four years ago, the tawdry and shameful priest sexual abuse scandal exploded in Boston at Ground Zero, the Archbishop’s office. The Archdiocese ended up admitting that seven percent of its priests had been accused of sexually abusing 815 children between 1950 and 2003. Surely, an institution that cares about children would have moved heaven and earth to protect children from rampaging abusive priests (No!) and to ensure that effective sexual abuse prevention programs had been established (No!). The AG’s office describes the failure to monitor abusive priests, former priests and church workers as a “critical safety issue.” Archbishop O’Malley jeopardizes the safety of children all over the Commonwealth and yet freely wanders the streets of our city.