Victims mount when crimes are hushed up
Pope John Paul II on Sunday speaking before a gathering of youthful pilgrims in Canada asked them to support the vast majority of priests who do good. This is the first that the pope has spoken in pubic on the child-sex scandal that has haunted the Roman Catholic Church in the United States since January. Throughout the year accounts of priests who preyed upon young boys have surfaced. Equally disturbing are the stories that their bishops and cardinals knew of the allegations and did nothing more than reassign them to unsuspecting parishes.
It’s hard to decide which is worse: the crime or the cover-up.
The pope did summon the cardinals to the Vatican in the spring and the U.S. Bishops did address ways to handle future allegation of sexual misconduct. The faithful, including those attending World Youth Day, had hoped for more from the pope and for a sign that the crisis is passing and that the Church while recognizing its role in absolving sinners also understands that crimes must be punished by a secular society.
Unfortunately the same mindset that allowed the sex scandals to remain hidden is easily extended to other crimes. An Associated Press story this week casts doubt on the Church’s ability to keep others from harm. The Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., – the same diocese whose last two bishops resigned after admitting to sexual abuse – in 1994 discovered that its financial manager had embezzled $400,000.
Church officials admitted they covered it up because the man hadn’t done anything wrong before and had agreed to make small monthly payments of restitution. Less than a year later he stopped making payments.
Worse yet is that after he resigned, church officials recommended him for a job at the Jewish Community Center in West Palm Beach. He is now charged with grand theft for using the center’s funds to purchase a camping trailer.
It is as the pope said Sunday. The majority of dedicated priests and religious only wish is to serve and do good. Unfortunately, a minority of deviates and those incapable of realizing that hiding crimes protects the guilty and increases the number of victims have caused too much harm.