UNITED STATES
Boys Don’t Tell
Randy Ellison
I’ve been reading a lot of articles lately on how much the Catholic Church is doing to repair the damage to it’s public image. They wish to show us how repentant they are over what they have been doing to our children. There are conferences in Rome where bishops listen to survivors and a really great press release by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin who actually seems to “get it”.
Now, this morning , there is a particularly nauseating press release out of New York by His Excellency Archbishop Timothy Dolan. Mr. Dolan reports on his conversation with NY Governor Cuomo regarding a bill to extend the statute of limitations on child sex abuse five years until age 28: “And the governor listens. He’s a good lawyer. He reminded us of his allegiance to classical jurisprudence that would see a great benefit in the protection of the statute of limitations to see that the innocent of protected and that justice is done.”
Dolan also said the bishops have been “contrite” in admitting the church has handled molestation scandals poorly, but is trying to do more now — and isn’t getting credit for that: So it does bother us that the church continues to be a “whipping boy”…
Really? In arguing against a five year extension of the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse Mr. Dolan describes The Church as needing protection and justice because as hard as they try, they are still just a “whipping boy”? Interesting turn of a phrase if you ask me, and very skillful use of vocabulary to make The Church out to be the victim, in all the child sex abuse claims. Are you serious? After decades of child rape, deviant torture, beatings and destruction of human dignity, life and the theft of souls of helpless children “His Excellency” wants us to view The Church as the victim? And just to top it off he ends the press conference with “Last year when I was here, there were some refreshments up on that shelf, what happened to them?” aka; what happened to the booze?
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