The Catholic Church is not getting my sympathy — or my money

August 22, 2019

In the midst of last week’s long-time-coming lawsuit avalanche filed by people who say they were victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, a friend raised an interesting point.

Through the Child Victims Act, some of the plaintiffs were allowed to file anonymously, meaning they were permitted to keep their names a secret. But the men they accused were identified by name. My friend said that didn’t seem fair.

A two-word response immediately popped into my head. One of those words was: “Tough.” (Decorum prevents me from printing the other one.)

The Catholic Church and its leaders do not deserve an ounce of sympathy. Consider for a moment the centuries of damage inflicted on children, much of it tacitly sanctioned by the inaction of bishops and cardinals, all in the name of avoiding scandal and protecting predators, criminals who should have been in a prison, not on an altar. Then cry me a river flowing with milk and honey about “fairness.”

I say this as a Catholic. Disappointed, disillusioned and disgusted, but still a Catholic.

It took me a lifetime to get to this point. A year ago this week, The News published an open letter I wrote, in which I expressed horror that my church, which is like my family, had systematically looked the other way while countless innocent lives were being destroyed. My reason was the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury reportdocumenting decades of despicable acts by hundreds of priests, yet another in a string of criminal and journalistic investigations that kept finding the exact same thing: abuse followed by denial followed by cover-up.

The previous year also brought to light the names of dozens of priests in the Buffalo Diocese who were accused of abuse and never made to pay for their crimes, names that never would have come out without relentless pressure from members of the Buffalo media.

Church leaders all the way up to the pope have apologized. Local pastors have read statements from Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone or issued their own mea culpas on behalf of their colleagues. I have hea...

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Showing 3 comments

Daniel "Buddy" Robson commented 2019-08-28 13:45:24 -0500
Bruce’s article is right on point and should be shared widely. I am going to follow, with great interest, the proceedings and deliberations of the Buffalo RICO lawsuit. The rules of evidence are more relaxed than that of a criminal court and those subpoenaed to testify will not be able to hide behind their 5th Amendment “rights”…The PA Grand Jury Report was a blockbuster. This trial will be absolutely electrifying!
Marti Williams followed this page 2019-08-25 23:08:55 -0500
Km S commented 2019-08-22 10:34:19 -0500
The catholic church has also not my sympathy nor understanding. I left church in 2017 after many many bad experiences because I do not want to support criminals any longer. In Germany, we have to go to a local court and pay a fee to leave a church because our state is not completely separated from the Christian churches. But I will never support churches, who act criminal, not financial nor in other cases. I prefer to invest my time and resources to support victims of violence and abuse and to informe the society about the crime going on there. I am saying this as a former Catholic. I can feel deeply with victims. The perpetrators often use threat in relation to “Gods punishment” to keep victims silent. So every person has to stand up for victims.

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