Priests vs Victims

A wire service story paints a picture of the scene at the US bishops meeting in Washington, DC, this week. The primary point is that victims and “reform” groups are upset by the Vatican revisions to the Dallas policy:

Since June, attention has shifted from a focus on helping victims to preserving priests’ rights, prompted by criticism that the bishops’ original plan violated due process under church law.

They state it as if there is an opposition. The underlying tone suggests that all priests are guilty. How about we rephrase it as victims’ rights and the rights of the accused. Not every priest who is accused is guilty and isn’t a falsely accused priest a victim, too?

This is where the hostility toward the Church by the media and by heterodox reform groups begins to enter. To them the priesthood is the enemy and there are some who would like to see it stripped of any prominence so that it has no special significance in the Church. And it was the negligent bishops who provided the ammunition for these anti-clericalists by allowing the Scandal to take root and giving the appearance that priests get a free pass to commit unspeakable sins.