Shorter Christine Flowers: Raping Children “Just a Mistake”, Church Critics Unfair
The details, while shocking, refer to horrors committed more than 20 years ago, but they’re being used to condemn a church that – more than any other organized faith institution in the world – has made the most public and painful act of contrition in history.
Yes, grievous mistakes were made, under a veil of secrecy that has destroyed the confidence of so many Catholics and driven many more from the pews. This pope has recognized it, and has been courageous and unflinching in his attacks on what can only be called the most mortal of sins. That is why it’s so painfully ironic that he’s become the new favorite whipping boy.
Personally, I’m tired of my church being exposed to the same boilerplate attacks every time some long-ago transgression is revealed in the press, usually around the time Catholics prepare to celebrate a sacred moment like Christmas or Easter.
Like clockwork, people who have always had a bone to pick with Rome channel their anger and frustration on a wide range of topics (abortion, female priests, celibacy, same-sex marriage, meatless Fridays in Lent) into rants against the institution…
I HAVE the feeling that no amount of “confession” and self-flagellation would make the PGN and other critics truly happy. Their goal is a user-friendly church, one that not only addresses the pedophilia scandal in terms to their liking, but also changes its fundamental nature.
I know the wish list: Celibacy gone? Sure! Female priests? Come on down! Seal of approval for abortion? We hear ya! Same-sex marriage? Can we register at Macy’s?
And they think my credibility is on the line.
Seriously. THAT is the filth the Daily News chooses to print in their pages. No wonder the paper is in such awful financial straits. Who in their right mind can read this garbage and have even an ounce of respect for this sick, twisted woman and the people who publish her? I would suggest that you use her column to wipe your ass, but frankly, I think a coating of shit is too good for this steaming pile of an opinion.
These are the facts, which Flowers chooses to ignore: the pope is implicated in a massive cover-up of the sexual abuse and victimization of young children, many of them physically handicapped. Evidence suggest he knew what was going on from the very start. More evidence indicates clearly that the man who is now the pope was more interested in protecting the church than he was protecting children. I myself heard one of the Irish bishops on the radio just last week claiming he had no legal or moral responsibility to tell the police what was going on in Ireland.
THAT is what Christine Flowers is defending because she is so devoted to her FAITH and her GOD that, as she has done before, she is wearing blinders to the acts of MEN. But it wasn’t God who raped those kids: it was ordinary men, but Flowers conflates the two. One gets the idea that if it was HER child (not that she has any, she doesn’t) she would gladly take a child molester’s side over her own kid’s safety. She should be ashamed of herself.
You know who else should be ashamed of themselves? Michael Schefer and Sandra Shea, the editors of the Daily News op-ed page. They review every single submission, every single column, and they decided that the best use of their platform was a spirited defense of child rape.
Somehow that doesn’t seem like the best way to grow your readership.
