A kick in the gut
When I see the names on this list and realize how close I was to them - same school, same parish, same classroom in some cases - it makes me ill to think that they were abusing classmates, co-parishioners, friends.
What a monumental abuse of trust. Just contemplating this makes me ill. Pity the poor guys who lived this nightmare as the abused students.
posted by Doc Paul at 3:23 PM
1 Comments:
Paulie,
I feel exactly the same way. It didn't really hit me until I was at Mom and Dad's, reading the Philly Inquirer everyday. The descriptions of those despicable acts committed by so-called "men of God" to innocent, defenseless children made me sick to my stomach. And of course, the realization that many of these "Priests" were from O'Hara left me wondering, like you, if I knew any of their victims.
It was common knowledge that Fr. McCarthy "liked the young boys" but I don't think anyone truly fathomed the extent of his "admiration." I do remember Mom refusing to allow you to accept an invitation to his place at the Jersey Shore...thank God we had parents who saw religious figures as human beings who were also capable of sinning (although I doubt even Mom realized the full extent of what was taking place).
And the Church's mishandling of this, and absolute refusal to take ownership has left me sour. Instead of pointing their fingers at corruption in the Protestant Churches and playing the "victim card," ("They hate us because we're Catholic"), they should publicly state their complicity, apologize to the victims and create a tangible system to ensure this never happens again.
Good Priests who witnessed and reported these crimes were told to "shut-up" while the guilty were promoted and sent to other parishes were they could abuse even more children. I am thoroughly disgusted! It appears as if, just like the White House, there's a leadership vacuum in the Catholic Church. Very discouraging!
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