{"id":3454,"date":"2007-11-15T12:58:10","date_gmt":"2007-11-15T17:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/2007\/11\/15\/they-still-dont-get-it\/"},"modified":"2007-11-15T12:58:10","modified_gmt":"2007-11-15T17:58:10","slug":"they-still-dont-get-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2007\/11\/they-still-dont-get-it\/","title":{"rendered":"They still don't get it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archbishop Flynn wrote
\na column two week ago<\/a> on recent news on how wide spread
\nsexual abuse is in public schools and the fact that abuse is declining
\nwithing the Church but increasing within schools.<\/p>\n

This week the Archbishop responds<\/a> to an
\nangry reply to his column in which he prints in full and then answers.
\n The letter writer’s main contention is that the Archbishop
\nwas changing from “Mistakes were made.” Now it’s, “Everyone does it.” I
\nthink the letter writer was wrong in this categorization of the
\nBishop’s letter since that was not the point of it and that he was
\nsaying their is a broader crisis that is mostly being ignored by the
\ngovernment and the media.<\/p>\n

On the other hand I think the Archbishop also does not answer some of
\nthe valid points made by the writer and keeps everything on a very
\nfocused reply. For example priestly abuse is worse than teacher abuse
\non many levels and can’t be simply equated as in the Archbishop’s
\nreplay.  He also ignored answering the question on what should
\nhappen to Bishops  who have been involved in a game of musical
\nchairs with priests suspected of abuse and only talked about it in the
\ncontext of the public education system.<\/p>\n

He seems to miss what so outrages many.  It is not just abuse
\nwhich is a horrible evil on it own, but the fact that the problems
\ncould have been nipped in the bud and prevented from getting worse.
\n People can accept that their are sick individual that do
\nhorrible things – it is when that evil is swept under the rug by those
\nresponsible that it really angers people. Though it isn’t just
\nArchbishop Flynn who doesn’t seem to understand this.  It is
\nevident that the majority of the USSCB does not get it.  <\/p>\n

The new vice-president of the US bishops’ conference likely next
\npresident is Bishop Gerald Kicanas.  As Diogenes posted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

So where does Bishop Kicanas stand on
\nthe all-consuming issue of sexual abuse? The Chicago Sun-Times caught
\nup with man who was once seminary rector there, to ask him a few
\nquestions about the case of Father Daniel McCormack. It turns out, you
\nsee, that Kicanas was aware of three different incidents involving
\nsexual impropriety by McCormack prior to his ordination. Did he
\ntherefore blow the whistle, and hustle the young man out of the
\nseminary? Guess again.<\/p>\n

    “There was a sense that his activity was
\npart of the developmental process and that he had learned from the
\nexperience,” Kicanas said. “I was more concerned about his drinking. We
\nsent him to counseling for that.”<\/p>\n

Drinking can be a problem, certainly. Especially if it’s not part of a
\ndevelopmental process.<\/p>\n

Just in case you’ve missed the headlines, McCormack is now in prison,
\nserving a term for 5 counts of sexual molestation of young boys. But
\nnow, looking back from the post-Dallas perspective, surely Bishop
\nKicanas has second thoughts, right? Wrong.<\/p>\n

    “I don’t think there was anything I
\ncould have done differently,” Kicanas said.<\/p>\n

They still don’t get it. <\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile
\nGerald reports on the case<\/a> of a pastor
\nin Oakland who was arrested in 1999 for a lewd act in a men’s bathroom
\n– but it’s okay since it was<\/span>consensual and didn’t involve a minor.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archbishop Flynn wrote a column two week ago on recent news on how wide spread sexual abuse is in public schools and the fact that abuse is declining withing the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-punditry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}