Church, Inc.

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput never fails to amaze me with his disingenuous tripe about Catholic persecution by others. His latest use of this ruse comes at a time when the Colorado legislature is considering a bill to extend the statute of limitations for sexual offenders.
Of course this legislation would strike at the very heart of Catholic priests sexually abusing Catholic children for decades while the Church kept the lid on the disgusting scandal.
Men and women now in their middle-aged years have struggled since childhood with the scar of “a man of God” sexually abusing them. Their lives were forever changed by trauma and the effects of PTSD because of the offending priests.
In city after city the Church hid the evidence of the crimes. Instead of reporting the offender the Church moved him to another diocese. Instead of firing or disrobing the priest, the Church kept silent, kept the offenders moving and kept the victims feeling guilt and shame.
Now, incredibly, Archbishop Chaput has sent a letter to be read to all parishioners at mass describing the legislation as anti-Catholic. He implores the laity to call their legislators.
Chaput gives numbers about school teachers that have offended and cites the law disallowing a school district to be sued for the conduct of the teacher. He doesn’t cite too many cases of school districts hiding teachers by sending them to other schools in their district if they abuse children at one school.
Chaput infers the other denominations have more cases of abuse than the Catholics. This is apparently supposed to make us think we’re not being fair to Catholics and let the Church ignore its responsibility to the victims of the pedophile priests.
Comparing teachers who offend and priests who offend may be valid in some respects but teachers never tell children they are men of God or it’s God’s will. Teachers who offend face civil and criminal consequences.
For far too long the only consequence the pedophile priest faced was a change of address. Unfortunately for thousands of children they never received the mercy allowed the priests.
Unfortunately for the good men of the priesthood their credibility has suffered because of a small number of offenders and a cover up by the hierarchy of the Church.
Not too long ago Archbishop Chaput told the laity in the Denver diocese he had rules in place preventing what had occurred in other dioceses.
Later Chaput chastised a lay woman on a committee to audit every Church in America. She apparently dared suggest another audit should occur.
Archbishop Chaput suggested such decisions should be left to the leaders of the Church. This interaction took place during the time the Conference of Bishops came to Denver. The message seemed to be the laity should trust the same leaders who had failed to do the right thing with offending priests for decades.
Suddenly in the past year, Denver Catholics found out what the rest of the country had already experienced. Priests in Colorado had abused children for many decades. When discovered the Denver diocese did what all the other dioceses had done. They covered up and allowed the offending priest to change addresses.
Now victims are coming forth to tell the truth the Church failed to tell. Now victims are exposing the cover up.

When I hear and read about the letter of the Archbishop and his public statements of “anti-Catholicism”, I think of money. The Roman Catholic Church, Inc. comes to mind. Church, Inc. doesn’t want to take responsibility for the sins of its men of God that abused Catholic children.
Church, Inc. doesn’t want to accept responsibility for allowing the abuse to be covered up and the abused to live life in pain and anonymity.
Archbishop Chaput is supposed to be the Shepard of the flock. His behaviors and statements seem to indicate he’s more the CFO of the flock.