BishopAccountability.org
	Matt Gurney: It's Not the Sex. It's the Cover-up By Matt Gurney National Post April 15, 2010 http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/04/15/423226.aspx I am not Catholic myself, but over these last few weeks I’ve been much impressed by several Catholics I know. They have shown an ability to turn the other cheek to militant secularists — while still expressing their profound shame for the crimes committed by Catholic clergy — that is truly representative of the best of Christianity. It pains me to see these good Catholics, accepting the agony of seeing their Church attacked as a fair penance for its sins, being so spectacularly let down by the leadership of the Church, the Vatican itself. I’m referring, of course, to comments by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone: “I was told recently, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true. I have the documents of the psychologists. That is the problem.” The Vatican has begun to back away from that statement, but the damage is done. To the Cardinal, and all other devout Catholics who seem to be having trouble with this point, I offer this helpful clarification: Most people are reasonable, and understand that the acts of individual priests, however ghastly, do not discredit the Church as a whole. But what does hurt the Church is the actions taken by other officials to pay off victims in exchange for silence, to move predator priests from location to location and to refrain from reporting crimes to the police. It’s not the sex, however despicable the crimes were. It’s the cover-up that will destroy the Church’s credibility. Comments like Cardinal Bertone’s only make matters worse and show, in stark terms, how little the Church understands that they must answer for their enabling of predator priests, not for individual acts. Attempting to blame gays, the media or anyone else misses the point. The Vatican cannot redeem itself by saying, “Hey, it’s not our fault, because that sex offender we enabled and protected from prosecution turned out to be gay!” The sexual orientation of the criminal you’re sheltering matters little next to the fact that you’re sheltering a criminal! Until the Catholics, from individual worshippers right up to the Pope himself, realize this, they will never be able to begin redeeming the Church in the eyes of the world. As someone who respects the Church and its many good works, I hope they realize this soon. National Post mgurney@nationalpost.com
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