"Final commendation"
The everlasting gobstopper of sexual abuse allegations has already changed the political landscape, cost us an excellent senator and some dubious congressmen, and even yielded some unintended humor. (Chris Mathews? Tweety-bird? Who did he think he was, Jack Kennedy?) It made a national figure/disgrace of an obscure ex-judge, who still refuses to believe he lost and is now raving at everybody he can think of -- Muslims, Marxists, even Doug Jones's son Carson, who is gay. So it's easy to lose sight of the very real suffering this kind of behavior continues to cause.
Before there was Roy Moore, before most people had heard of Harvey Weinstein, there was Bernard Law, the cardinal archbishop of Boston, who died this week at 86. "After a long illness," the obit said, and I am uncharitable enough to hope that still means cancer, and plenty of it. Law himself was never identified as a molester of children. But he knew about, and commanded the obedience of, scores of priests who were, and all he did was move them from parish to parish while admonishing their victims to keep silent. For nearly twenty years. Eventually the story was broken by the Boston Globe*, calling down Law's condemnation (he all but called it "fake news"). The Catholic Church is not in any sense a democracy, so Boston Catholics protested in the only way they could, by withholding their money from the collection basket. The Polish pope had trouble hearing the voices of people who didn't count, like women, but he could read a balance sheet: Boston went from a reliably profitable branch office to posting ink as red as a cardinal's cummerbund. It was time for the moral leadership of the Church to be asserted, and in 2002 Law was removed from Boston and promoted to some job in the Vatican itself. To date, the Archdiocese of Boston has paid $95 million to over 500 victims of his former priests. (Without missing a payroll. Religion is a good business.)
Well, death has come for the archbishop. He was buried today, with guest star Pope Francis delivering a "final commendation." I promise, I read it at first as "final condemnation," but that was just cockeyed optimism. The widely admired pope will do himself no favors by participating in this time-honored farce. I would have busted Law down to priest and sent him to a parish in the Outer Hebrides (there might be some Papists there) but it wasn't my call. Here's my final commendation: Bernard my brother, I know you believe in hell. I know you believe suicide is the ultimate mortal sin, for which no atonement is possible. You are about to join the souls you and your subordinates drove to take their own lives in despair. Forever.
*By all means see the brilliant film Spotlight, but be advised that Len Cariou makes Law seem much too human.
Before there was Roy Moore, before most people had heard of Harvey Weinstein, there was Bernard Law, the cardinal archbishop of Boston, who died this week at 86. "After a long illness," the obit said, and I am uncharitable enough to hope that still means cancer, and plenty of it. Law himself was never identified as a molester of children. But he knew about, and commanded the obedience of, scores of priests who were, and all he did was move them from parish to parish while admonishing their victims to keep silent. For nearly twenty years. Eventually the story was broken by the Boston Globe*, calling down Law's condemnation (he all but called it "fake news"). The Catholic Church is not in any sense a democracy, so Boston Catholics protested in the only way they could, by withholding their money from the collection basket. The Polish pope had trouble hearing the voices of people who didn't count, like women, but he could read a balance sheet: Boston went from a reliably profitable branch office to posting ink as red as a cardinal's cummerbund. It was time for the moral leadership of the Church to be asserted, and in 2002 Law was removed from Boston and promoted to some job in the Vatican itself. To date, the Archdiocese of Boston has paid $95 million to over 500 victims of his former priests. (Without missing a payroll. Religion is a good business.)
Well, death has come for the archbishop. He was buried today, with guest star Pope Francis delivering a "final commendation." I promise, I read it at first as "final condemnation," but that was just cockeyed optimism. The widely admired pope will do himself no favors by participating in this time-honored farce. I would have busted Law down to priest and sent him to a parish in the Outer Hebrides (there might be some Papists there) but it wasn't my call. Here's my final commendation: Bernard my brother, I know you believe in hell. I know you believe suicide is the ultimate mortal sin, for which no atonement is possible. You are about to join the souls you and your subordinates drove to take their own lives in despair. Forever.
*By all means see the brilliant film Spotlight, but be advised that Len Cariou makes Law seem much too human.
posted by Buttermilk Sky at 12:53 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home