Why do I have a problem with the mandatory audits of dioceses’ for compliance with the USCCB’s child protection guidelines? First, because it does nothing to hold accountable bishops who themselves shuffled molesters from parish to parish. They can remain in office, yet the diocese gets an A+ for compliance. Meanwhile, good bishops like Bishop Bruskewitz gets a non-compliance rating because he refuses to cede his authority to an extra-ecclesial, extra-canonical structure. And secondly, because bishops like Howard Hubbard of Albany get to give softball interviews to the press, talking piously of their duty to protect children and how much they’ve done, even as victims still come forward to claim that they’re even now being railroaded by the diocese.
“Look at the games he’s (Hubbard) trying to play with me in court in a case with a known pedophile,” said Woodward. “Not I, nor many parishioners, trust Hubbard, and I don’t think he’s really trying to create any kind of positive changes,” he said.
Even Woodward’s gay friendly lawyer warns about the problem of homosexual priests: “I don’t have a problem with anyone being a homosexual, but in the diocese it’s a problem because the gay priests are afraid to tell on the pedophiles out of fear of being outed by them.”
Meanwhile, even the Albany diocese’s own investigator says he’s looing into complaints against 150 priests, which means the diocese’s own report in last year’s audits that only 80 priests had been accused of abuse since the 1950s and that there has to be more than the 120 victims who filed complaints.
Yeah those audits are so very helpful to bringing about a solution to the Scandal.
The other problem is prevention. Active homosexual priests will still continue to be placed in situations where they are alone with teenage boys. That is an outrage. The Boy Scouts cares about its charges, and makes prevention of homosexual molestation a priority. Our boys are in danger in this Church.
It’s our responsibility as Catholics to make sure that everyone knows enough of what we know such that no more kids get hurt. It’s our responsibility not to pay for this, or condone it. It’s our responsibility to make it plain that this man does not speak for us, nor is he representative of the Catholic faith.
But it’s God’s work to see that this man gets what he deserves. I’m willing to leave it at that.