Rod Dreher on Cardinal Law on National Review Online
Share:FacebookX

Rod Dreher on Cardinal Law on National Review Online

Rod Dreher addresses the resignation of Cardinal Law. I agree with him in most of what he says, but I want to highlight one thing he writes:

    There are those who accuse the judge of unfairness, the attorney general of grandstanding, and the media of anti-Catholic bias. There may be a measure of truth in any and all of these allegations, but here’s the bottom line: Horrendous crimes were committed by priests against children and others, and those crimes were systematically covered up by Church officials, who in many cases allowed the offenders to continue in ministry, where they went on to abuse further. If not for the state and the media, we would know these things, and the system would still be in place. They have done the Church a favor.

I think he is exactly right. The state and the media have done us a favor, applying pressures that Catholic media and orthodox laymen and priests have not been able to apply, i.e. forcing bishops—and the Vatican—to begin to clean up their act.

Yet, as a friend in high school once wrote, their bathtub of glory is only half-full. At least in the case of Reilly and the Globe they do the right thing for wrong reasons, in my opinion. I will thank them, but not praise them, and I will be mindful of their impulse to push beyond what they have done. I don’t doubt that in the very near future, they will begin to demand changes in the Church that have nothing to do with abuse, but everything to do with a heterodox agenda. Heck, they’ve already started that process.

Share:FacebookX

Archives

Categories