News Story of the Day

Arizona’s infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio (R) spends a lot of time playing politics and apparently no time doing his actual job. The AP reports that, over a three-year period ending in 2007, Arpaio “inadequately investigated” or in some instances didn’t even work more than 400 sex-crimes reported to his office. The cases “include dozens of alleged child molestations.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Star and the Survivors’ Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) have targeted a psychiatrist who evaluated a priest now facing criminal charges in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo.

Before break, I drew a cartoon suggesting that the Penn State football program had been reading out of the Catholic Church's playbook. Two letters expressed outrage at the comparison, and said that the cartoon was harmful to the victims. A student wrote, " It is time to honor and respect the victims of these terrible actions by putting the actions behind us so that they can move on with their lives without fear of being linked to current crimes."

An extraordinary legal drama is the talk of the town this week, but unlike most of what transpires in the American criminal justice system, this exclusive engagement was just for VIPs.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Saturday that all of society's institutions and not just the Catholic church must be held to "exacting" standards in their response to sex abuse of children, and defended the church's efforts to confront the problem.

Lost in many of the news articles hailing Philip Gunn’s triumphal entry as Speaker of the House are the sex abuse allegations leveled at Gunn’s former minister, John Langworthy.  In the months following the arrest of the former Morrison Heights Baptist Church music minister, Gunn has served as the church’s attorney, spokesperson, and elder.  This would seem enough hats for a man who is also mounting a speaker’s campaign but last week, Gunn added another, clergyman. 

I realize many of you newspaper readers don't see myblog at themorningcall.com, so I'll just tell you here that in addition to writing about Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno, I've been writing about the state House committee chairman who has been smothering bills that would make it easier for child sex abuse victims to name and confront their abusers.

Reported missing the morning he was to meet with authorities investigating allegations that he molested a boy, the Rev. Alejandro Flores was found sprawled amid toppled pews at St. Mary's Carmelite Church in Joliet.

Most of us would rather take a bullet than stand by and watch a child be hurt. It's difficult for us to fathom a mindset that places a higher priority on the sheltering of a suspected pedophile than on the harm done to alleged victims.