Hearsay
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Hearsay

The newspapers are reporting today that Bishop McCormack of Manchester, NH, wrote letters to a priest in prison expressing his sympathy and saying he thought the children were lying about the abuse. My criticisms of McCormack are many and public, but I will refrain from commenting on this for now.

I think the journalists are irresponsible for reporting on something that they haven’t seen yet, but will soon. All the stories I’ve seen attribute the material to “people familiar with the letters.” The letters will be part of the giant document dump coming soon from the New Hampshire attorney general. Why not wait until then when we can see the letter in context and make sure we get the story right? Because, by then they won’t have an exclusive scoop and the context may reduce the damning nature of the report. In other words, truth be damned, we want the story to be compelling even if it isn’t exactly correct. We can always issue corrections later (buried deep in the newspaper where no one will see them and after an impression has been created in the minds of the public.)

I’m all for exposing the “sins of the masters” and rooting out the cancer in our Church, but not at the expense of truth and the Truth. Sorry, but this bandwagon leaves without me. I’ll catch the next one.

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