UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave
Kevin O’Brien
A parish church in Australia is burned to ruins by arson, and its members, in general, celebrate.
“For the community here, it’s kind of the haunted house on the hill,” said one of them.
It was “hard going to this church” said another. “If the church is rebuilt after the fire, it would have served its punishment to some degree.”
These are normal Catholics saying this. Think about that for a moment. Normal suburban Catholics – the kind who, here in the States, grill in the backyard, go to the mall, watch their kids and grandkids play sports – normal suburban Catholics happy that an arsonist burned down their parish church.
Why?
Because one of its priests groomed and abused altar boys, some of whom later committed suicide.
“It’s always been a difficult building for us to drive past because there’s been so much tragedy and complicated feelings, I guess. We’ve all attended many funerals of boys that we now know were abused by [Father Ronald] Pickering … and other perpetrators in the parish – at the actual church that it occurred in.”
Meanwhile, in Chile, Pope Francis appoints as bishop of Osorno a notorious supporter of a known abuser and quasi-cult leader, this appointment causing a riot in the cathedral there. Jennifer Haselberger analyzes the situation and concludes that it would be literally impossible for the pope to appoint as bishops men who aren’t at least somewhat tainted by their participation in the Sex Scandal – either as having participated in it or as having condoned or enabled it. Haselberger saw the situation from the inside in the archdiocese of St. Paul and would, presumably, know what she’s talking about.
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