BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe
By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist | March 22, 2006
News that the Vatican has defrocked seven alleged child molesters who once worked as priests in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston came on the heels of a hearing last week about legislation that could cost such sexual predators their freedom, as well as their clerical collars.
Curiously, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley was not on Beacon Hill to support the bills that would eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual crimes against children, bills drafted in response to the sexual abuse scandal in the very institution he heads.
It could not have been an aversion to politics that kept the archbishop away. O'Malley has had a busy political time of it lately. One week he is defending an exemption from state financial disclosure laws that apply to other charities because opening his books would be an assault on religious independence.
Another week he is seeking an exemption from state antidiscrimination laws because acknowledging the civil rights of same-sex parents would be an affront to Catholic religious teachings.