Cdl. O’Malley Aide: “Policy” will get us through abuse crisis. Seriously?!

Part 2 of our report on the Cardinal’s coddling of homosexual priests is coming later on Friday.  In the meantime, as many know, Cardinal O’Malley called a meeting with Boston archdiocesan priests on Tuesday to discuss the renewed church sex abuse scandal, including cover-up allegations. The meeting was, no doubt, a good idea. However, in our opinion, a comment by Cardinal O’Malley’s archdiocesan secretary for evangelization and discipleship after to the press that “policy is the only thing to get us through this” were downright pathetic.  We quote from the article so you get the full context:

Is this 2002 redux?” The Rev. Paul Soper, the archdiocesan secretary for evangelization and discipleship, said was the overriding concern of the approximately 300 priests who attended O’Malley’s meeting at St. Julia’s in Weston.

“They worry we’re falling into that kind of abyss,” Soper said of the churchwide scandal now exploding in Pennsylvania with allegations of official mishandling reaching Boston and even Rome.

O’Malley, chairman of Pope Francis’ Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, faces accusations of ignoring a priest’s letter trying to warn him three years ago about McCarrick, who was stripped of his title in June after allegations of sex abuse were deemed credible. O’Malley has placed the blame on his executive secretary, who the cardinal said never passed the information along to him — an explanation he repeated yesterday.

“He said he never got the letter,” Soper said. Soper said he believes O’Malley. But he said major structural changes do need to happen.

“Policy is the only thing that is going to get us through this,” Soper said.

Policy is the only thing that is going to get us through this?!  Seriously?!?!

How about being a human being with some basic common sense and a moral compass to know right from wrong?

Don’t we already have policies about reporting allegations about sexual abuse by a priest?

Do we need a policy so when a letter arrives to a bishop or cardinal’s office reporting that someone was abusing young seminarians, it should be treated with urgency and acted upon to prevent further abuses?   In the absence of a policy, is Fr. Soper saying that competent people wouldn’t know the right thing to do with a report like that?

If Cardinal O’Malley is to be believed that he never heard a word about this, then either Fr. Kickham is incompetent for not having the sense to escalate the situation to the Cardinal, or Cardinal O’Malley is not competent for not creating a culture in his office where the protection of children from harm is important.

Do we need a policy that priests are expected to be chaste?

We actually have a policy that pastors and priests shouldn’t bring people or groups in to speak at their parish if they don’t believe Catholic Church teachings as handed down by Jesus Christ, but no one enforces the policy anyway and it’s routinely flaunted.

As someone wrote shortly before Cardinal O’Malley was appointed archbishop of Boston, what we need is for the archbishop to:

teach, sanctify, and govern his people and priests with the courage, conviction, and confidence that comes from personal conversion to Jesus Christ and a life-changing decision to follow Him in the Way of the Cross….The Archbishop of Boston cannot be a chancery bureaucrat, an office manager, or a dialogue facilitator…he must be a passionately effective evangelist because he is first a thoroughly converted disciple of Jesus Christ.

and we need his staff to follow that lead.

Lastly, if any priests or lay-people know of any situation of clergy sexual abuse of others, know of cover-ups, or are aware of homosexual activity by clergy, bishops, or cardinals, we would urge you to report it to proper authorities and  come forward publicly to get the dirt and evil out into the light of day.

Stay tuned for Part 2.