Jesuit America magazine editorial on Cardinal McCarrick

I already posted about this sad/horrible/tragic situation here  The Scandal of Cardinal McCarrick  and here. Jesuit magazine addresses the abuses of Cardinal McCarrick

Here's the editorial. Link shouldn't have a paywall.

The Editors: The Catholic Church should not be shocked by the McCarrick case—it should be ashamed.

The Catholic Church cannot pretend to be shocked about the pattern of sexual abuse of adult seminarians by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, recently detailed in a comprehensive story in The New York Times. As The Times made clear in its reporting, many church leaders had received multiple notices of the cardinal’s behavior. Local dioceses had been told, the papal nuncio in Washington, D.C., had been told and, eventually, even Pope Benedict XVI had been told.

But none of these reports interrupted Cardinal McCarrick’s rise through the ranks nor his appointment as cardinal nor his eventual retirement in 2006 as a respected leader of the U.S. church. Nor did these reports lead to his removal last month from public ministry, which finally resulted from a credible allegation of abuse of a minor almost 50 years ago, recently revealed and acted on by the Archdiocese of New York.

It is true that none of the earlier reports of abuse alleged criminal behavior with minors, but they were serious enough that Cardinal McCarrick should have been called to account for the terrible misuse of his office and authority. The church and its leaders should be ashamed of their failure to do so. The slow and halting progress the church has made by way of reforms adopted in response to the sexual abuse of children, for example through the Dallas charter, has been called into question by the revelation of its ongoing failures to deal with other reports of abuse. Nor should the media, including we in Catholic media (Cardinal McCarrick was a longtime friend of this magazine and delivered the homily at our centennial celebration in 2009), be absolved of responsibility for any failure to take these and other rumors and reports as seriously as was required. To demand accountability only of the hierarchy is itself hypocrisy.

Eight more paragraphs if you hit the link. It's a good editorial.

Comments

[Peter Marengo]

Where was the editorial board of America when Michael Rose wrote his eye-opening book, “Good Bye Good Men”, which explored and revealed in incredible detail the disturbingly gay subculture in various seminaries throughout North America in the 1970’s-1990’s? If America’s editorial board or any independent Catholic news organization worth its salt had further explored Rose’s work, perhaps the game would have been up years ago. Yes, shame on the church hierarchy, but shame on the media for refusing to do their job and protecting such prelates.