Re. Fr. Jiang and Archbishop Carlson, I just wrote to a friend about the difficulty of blogging about this ...
So, yes, I'm skeptical and I'm cynical. The story told by the alleged victim in Old Monroe fits a pattern; it rings true. It may be false. But apparently there's enough evidence to substantiate it, and if it is indeed true, it means we're dealing with a level of depravity in our archdiocese that no one is going to want to face head on. It means that clergy and laity alike will lie thorough their teeth or at least bend the truth in order to keep up appearances and reputation. It means that children and families will be sacrificed for the sake of status and power.
If the allegations are false, then we're dealing with a similar level of depravity on the other side.
Either way, I pray that we all have the courage to confront the truth when it finally comes out. If it finally comes out.
But I fear that if this girl has indeed been victimized, and if Archbishop Carlson has indeed enabled the crime and attempted to cover it up, my fellow theologically orthodox Catholics will look the other way, call Bill Donohue for a spin job, and crucify me and any other Catholic who reports on this in the process.
The decade-old scandal is darker and deeper than we care to admit, and until we confront it and the hell that it inhabits and celebrates, it won't go away.
I keep trying to address the fact that we don't really know all the facts here - but even when we did (as in the Bishop Finn case), the Super-Catholics still rallied around their guy and vilified the victims.
So, yes, I'm skeptical and I'm cynical. The story told by the alleged victim in Old Monroe fits a pattern; it rings true. It may be false. But apparently there's enough evidence to substantiate it, and if it is indeed true, it means we're dealing with a level of depravity in our archdiocese that no one is going to want to face head on. It means that clergy and laity alike will lie thorough their teeth or at least bend the truth in order to keep up appearances and reputation. It means that children and families will be sacrificed for the sake of status and power.
If the allegations are false, then we're dealing with a similar level of depravity on the other side.
Either way, I pray that we all have the courage to confront the truth when it finally comes out. If it finally comes out.
But I fear that if this girl has indeed been victimized, and if Archbishop Carlson has indeed enabled the crime and attempted to cover it up, my fellow theologically orthodox Catholics will look the other way, call Bill Donohue for a spin job, and crucify me and any other Catholic who reports on this in the process.
The decade-old scandal is darker and deeper than we care to admit, and until we confront it and the hell that it inhabits and celebrates, it won't go away.
Comments
We all actually know quite a bit, but the Super-Catholics and Clericalists want desperately to be the "Know Nothings" when it comes to the Scandal in general land this one in particular.
Here's what we know.
We know that the evidence substantiates the claims - at least enough for the prosecution to go forward and for the priest to be removed from his duties. We know that a certain group of Catholics don't give a damn about the veracity of the claims or the victim and her family, and are more than willing to call the crimes detailed by a likely victim of sexual abuse "a teen-aged girl's fantasy". We know that the Abuse Scandal indicates a corruption that is vast and debilitating to the Catholic Church, systemic in its scope and reach.
But we don't want to know. We don't want to see it. We want the pretending to continue.
The Church is in a crisis and only two things will save us, by the grace of God. "Know Nothing-ness" isn't one of them.
I go into that here ... http://thwordinc.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-crisis-inside-church.html