Abuse scandal: Vatican still doesn't get it

Vatican City --

As the world's cardinals begin huddling in secret to pick a new pope, many American Catholics are still trying to figure out why Bernard Law was allowed to say a public funeral Mass for John Paul II.

The answer seems obvious. The Vatican still doesn't believe that sex abuse by priests is a serious problem. The old guys running the show still don't get it.

As archbishop of Boston, Law specialized in spiriting predator priests from one parish to another without informing either the cops or parishioners, some of whose children were later targeted for abuse.

So far, more than 600 persons in the Boston archdiocese have said they were victimized by church clerics, and more than $90 million in settlements has been paid out. As a result, the archdiocese is teetering on financial ruin.

Initially, Law refused to step down. Then a judge unsealed commendation letters written by Law praising priests that he knew had been accused of molesting children.

When the cardinal finally left the archdiocese in 2002, he received no punishment from the Vatican. On the contrary, he was brought to Rome, installed in a beautiful apartment and named archpriest of the Basicila of St. Mary Major.

That's a lot better than being locked away in a Massachusetts prison for covering up multiple felonies, which is what should have happened to Law.

Thanks to him, sex-criminal priests were allowed to continue preying on the youth of the Catholic Church, splintering lives as well as the faith.

Read the article at Herald.com Dated April 17, 2005

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