Wolves in Shepards clothing

One of the great tradgedies of the catholic church entering the twenty first century was it handling (if you can call it that) of the priest child molestation accusations. High ranking individuals such as Cardinal Mahoney, Archbishop of Los Angeles, protected priest who had performed criminal sexual acts against children. Why Mr. Mahoney is not behind bars, or has not been removed from his position speaks volumns about the church's moral hyprocracy whithin its own walls. These priest have blasphemed Christ and poisoned the Gospel with their revolting, inexcusable behavior. Rather than a millstone around their miserable necks, the church maintained these vile shepards with the sheep, closed their eyes, and pretended the shepards were not wolves.

The Church's record on defending the unborn is spotless, but their record on protecting those born has been severely blighted. Though the percentage of priest who committed these acts is few, it is the response of the Church as a whole that is the real scandal. Protecting weak and miserable men is not the first priority of God's people. This is so painfully obvious that is seems ridiculous to have to point out. The catholic leadership is led by highly educated and intelligent men, so ignorance is not the problem. There was no good reason to sweep these evil men under the rug. These "priest" should have been turned over to the authorities immediately, stripped of their vocations, and denounced before the entire world. Catholic's should have marched in the street and demanded the just punishment of these religious criminals.

The Church is God's salt and light in the world. We are to preserve good and expose evil. The bearers of God's truth in Christ cannot afford to blindly sit by as vile imposters darken the way to the cross. Pope Benedict XVI is taking relativism to task, and is leading the church into a confrontation with secularism. I am not catholic but I will join with this pope to defend the idea of spiritual and moral absolutes, but if we are to be credible and succeed, we can not treat evil in the midst of Christianity as though we were our own irreligious enemy.

TOTT