MINNESOTA
Winona Daily News
Leslie Hittner
Since the First Sunday of Advent, 2013, there have been at least 10 stories in the Winona Daily News about the Diocese of Winona’s involvement in the Catholic Church cover-up of priestly sexual abuse.
Indeed, the Church’s “shepherds” seemed to have been shepherding teams of lawyers who graze in courtrooms instead of “the flock.”
Ten stories about the Diocese of Winona and the cover-up.
Zero stories about the Diocese of Winona and the season of Advent.
When I was working for my brother, who owned and operated our family’s trucking business, he used to say, “Watch what a business advertises. That will be an area where it is weak. That will be what it does not do right. That will be an area where that business struggles.” That’s why nearly every forced release of information about the priestly sexual abuse cover-up is accompanied by official statements that review the policies and procedures that the church has set in place “to protect the children.”
It’s not because the church does these things that such statements are released. It’s because the church didn’t do these things.
Remember also, that throughout all of this, few if any bishops have been held accountable by the church. The church continues to deflect the public’s attention about its sexual abuse issues by pointing to sexual abuse and sexual abuse cover-ups elsewhere — as if that makes some sort of a difference.
Well, gentlemen, it doesn’t.
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