Milwaukee Scandal

[Dr. Bombay]

I'm no fan of Dolan, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in this case due to my own experience.

In my diocese a couple of years ago, the county prosecutor decided she simply HAD to convene a grand jury to indict my bishop for two misdemeanor charges of failing to report suspected child abuse, even though he in fact DID report the suspected abuse, just not in the meticulous manner the county prosecutor desired, especially in an election year. The priest had taken some pictures of little girls panties. So one year and $1.5 million dollars in taxpayers money later, a judge found the bishop guilty on one of the misdemeanor charges and sentenced him to......two years probation.  Money well spent, if I've ever seen it.  You rarely see that kind of fiscal efficiency in the private sector.

Meanwhile, just this past spring, a teacher in a local public school district is convicted of raping several students and sent to jail for 15 years.  Here's the kicker.  It turns out the school district officials knew about the abuse as far back as 2008.  Aha! thinks I to meself.  Our brave county prosecutor will surely convene numerous grand juries and sock it to these officials for their gross negligence in reporting suspected child abuse!  Only....not so much.  Not only that, but there's no media fed crusade against patriarchy, no protestant fed insinuations of corruption and worse in the Church, no "Why, I nevahs!" from outraged citizenry, no calls by the local newspaper for the district officials to resign.  No, nothing of the sort.  Just a stone cold deafening silence that positively screamed "HYPOCRISY!"  Keep in mind, the priest took pics of little girls.  The teacher actually raped kids.  He sodomized children.  But nothing from our noble county prosecutor.

You see, public school districts aren't run by Roman Catholic bishops and are therefore not required to protect children.  That's the lesson to be learned from this whole immoral tale.  

So you'll pardon me if I'm not first in line to cast a stone at the Cardinal Archbishop of New York based on skeevy media reports.

[Basilisa Marie]

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of Dolan either, but I'm very impressed with the letters that I've read that he wrote to the accused priests.  They strike an impressive balance between concern, pastoral care, and "You're not doing any form of ministry ever again, so don't even try to ask."  It's pretty clear he tried to do the best thing for everyone in a pretty terrible situation.  If anything, people should be after the care facilities that recommended these guys to return to active ministry, but you never hear about those.  

Edited July 3, 2013 by Basilisa Marie

[Guest]

Sick sick stuff...It never seems to end...