Archbishop Martin finally says what all bishops should have said about the scandal.  It's a contrast to the abominable words written by the disgraced Archbishop Weakland in his upcoming memoir, through which he claims he never realized the criminality of child sexual abuse and thus his actions in Milwaukee.  One would think that out of humility and more importantly, out of charity to the victims, Weakland would have repented and done so privately.  I hope Archbishop Martin's are well-heeded by the Irish orders who must provide restitution to their victims and release the names of offenders.

Bishop Martin says "it"? Why am I sceptical? -Sceptical of this whole hysteria about abuse all over the place? Some are making it sound like the Catholic Church has done not much else but abuse and cover up the abuse as a mission in life. Maybe I'm sceptical because just the tenor of one Catholic Sister who claims to have some fame in hunting down abusers belies her hysteria and the quote she made of a similarly famous priest "abuse expert" belies this same hysteria. She was posting on an earlier blog on this same topic. Okay, for example we have the hysteria over the day care centers and the completely unjust treatment and destruction of the lives of the accused via "recovered memories" and "play acting" by so called experts. The real crazies were the psychotic parents who climbed on this witch-hunt train. The real victims and destroyed lives were of the accused who were dismissed, imprisioned, and shunned. Now, getting on the money bandwagon of being a victim of sexual abuse is just so lucrative. It doesn't take much examination to see how many people have decided or been encouraged to make claims based upon time and location of other claims. I know there have been sexual abuses, but to blame the Bishops and Religious Orders of what some rare deviants have been responsible for is just part of this pyramid scheme of gold-digger lawyers and greedy deceivers.

The collective Bishops' crime (at least in America - I haven't read the findings of the Irish report) wasn't the abuse itself, it was the cover-up of abuse; relocating known abusers from assignment to assignment in an effort to hide the crimes of deviants.  They put the Church as "the hierarchal institution" before the Church as "the Community of the Children of God".  They paradoxiacally created far more scandal in their efforts to sweep scandal under the rug. The buck stops with the head of each diocese.  The bishops are responsible for the spiritual well-being of the flock under their care, and should be held to account when they put their own interests ahead of that. Pax, Thomas  

Archbishops Martin and Brady: Come to the United States, we need bishops like you who aren't afraid to speak the truth, unlike our fellow American bishops who are afraid of the truth and forgot that Jesus Christ said that He was the truth.