CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
June 5, 2023
It is well and good that op-ed writer Mike Hoffman has “received restorative justice from the Catholic Church after surviving clergy abuse” (May 30). The fact is that clergy abuse of minors has been the norm in the Catholic Church for centuries — from the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and prior to Vatican II (1962-65) and after. It has been as much a part of Catholicism as the Stations of the Cross or Ash Wednesday.
Ireland, Australia, Mexico, the United States (every country, every decade, every parish — you name it). Bishops, archbishops, cardinals and popes, when not themselves perpetrators, have aided and abetted, covering up, prevaricating, moving abusers from parish to parish and playing Russian roulette with the lives of children.
— Joe English, Oak Park