Defense Of The Philadelphia Church — Three Catholic priests and a teacher charged with molesting boys in the late 1990s have inspired a new round of Catholic bashing and dumped new chum in the water for the circling lawyers who feed on such things.
Also facing charges is a church administrator who stands accused of not taking the steps required to protect children.
All well and appropriate but a statement in the grand jury report implying that the Philadelphia Archdiocese remains indifferent, and even tolerant, of these predators spawned opportunities throughout the nation for strident headlines and faux outrage by those always looking to put the Church in a bad light.
One has yet to see addressed the point that if the reforms by the Archdiocese were ineffective why aren’t there any cases newer than 11 years old?
In the 1970s, cynical predators knowing full well that the sheep are always defenseless against the sheepdog sneaked into respected institutions ranging from the Boy Scouts, to the Catholic Church, to Protestant churches, to universities, to government offices, to the ACLU, fully protected by a media that proclaimed only the traditional can be perverse.
Scandal and tragedy have caused the BSA and the churches to get their houses in order, often with the old media putting haranguing obstacles in their path.
The others, well, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank and the late Ted Kennedy remain lionized political figures. The ACLU case happened only a few short years ago in 2007.
And what goes on in our universities is pointedly ignored by the old media.
The Catholic Church is a very good thing. The city, state and nation would be far worse off if it should disappear.
But fear not, because it’s not despite the strongest wishes of some. The scandal and the attacks are only going to make it stronger.