NEW HAMPSHIRE
Eagle-Tribune
Yesterday's release of the state's first audit of the Manchester Catholic Diocese's sexual-abuse prevention efforts raises once again the question of why the church allows John B. McCormack to continue as bishop. His central role in the clergy sex-abuse scandal taints the moral authority of his position. He should do the right thing and resign.
As a top deputy to the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, McCormack was a key enabler of the massive and prolonged mistreatment of children, the revelation of which so shook and disgusted the region, the nation and the world. Assigned to "investigate" abuse charges against priests, he accepted their denials of sexual involvement with children at face value, put too much faith in their potential for rehabilitation, and worst of all, participated in shuffling abusive priests off to other parishes, where they preyed on new crops of victims.