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A Public Letter to Archbishop Carlson

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Bill McClellan writes an open letter to Archbishop Carlson in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Some excerpts ...

Good morning, Your Eminence. How you doing? Don’t answer. I know how you’re doing. You’re still reeling from the release of that transcript of a deposition from Minnesota in which you claimed you couldn’t remember whether you used to know it was a crime for an adult to have sex with a child.
That didn’t play too well, did it? Especially because at the very time you supposedly weren’t sure about the legality of molesting kids, you were writing memos to your boss about the statute of limitations for such a crime. If you knew about a statute of limitations, you had to know it was a crime. Or am I missing something?
Again, don’t answer. I am not here to harangue you. I’m on your side. As far as I’m concerned, “Thou shalt not lie” is strictly Old Testament stuff.
You need some public relations help, Your Em. Nothing against the people you have on staff, but I read the statement from Gabe Jones, spokesman for the archdiocese: “While not being able to recall his knowledge of the law exactly as it was many decades ago, the archbishop did make clear that he knows child sex abuse is a crime today.”
You think the flock is going to rally around something like that?
***
We’re going to put you on a charm offensive. We’ll book you on all the morning shows — radio and television, both. The hosts are relentlessly cheerful. You’ll tell them you’d love to discuss the deposition, but the darned lawyers won’t let you. So you’ll talk about soccer and bingo. Stuff like that. 

Read the whole thing here, and laugh so you don't cry.



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Comments

Chris said…
The archdiocese and the St Louis dispatch have just released the full transcript, which reveals a different story: that the question pertained to whether clergy were mandatory reporters of abuse, which did not become state law until 1988: http://www.stltoday.com/archbishop-robert-j-carlson-deposition/pdf_8545e986-5a00-5e7b-81a9-a6eb04604585.html and here: http://www.archspm.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/158765rcarlson05232014_Full_Redacted.pdf. It is hard to imagine the manipulation was not done in a manner to suggest what has been reported and Catholic bloggers have unwittingly lapped right up. I wonder if any clarification or apologies will be issued. I doubt it. I'm not saying Carlson is spot clean on this, but we need to fess up when we have been duped, jumped to conclusions, or are twisting things to continue a narrative. And it doesn't cut it to say that Carlson is only claiming to have been taken out of context. Read the transcript in its entirety!
June 11, 2014 at 10:16 AM
Kevin O'Brien said…
Chris, you're totally off base. I've read the entire transcript. Carlson's quote was NOT taken out of context. Read it yourself.
June 11, 2014 at 10:51 AM
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