The Cardinal’s Sin
How the Catholic Church has been complicit with priests and pedophilia

It’s difficult to imagine something more ungodly than sex with a child. Imagine that the someone is a priest, and the concept becomes even more repugnant. Imagine that leaders in the Roman Catholic Church could have prevented the sexual abuse and didn’t, and the idea is incomprehensible.

Once again, the Catholic Church is enduring harsh criticism for its decision to protect pedophiles instead of parishioners. And, once again, betrayed Catholics are questioning why the Church–after discovering that one of its priests had been charged with sex with a child–would simply move the priest to another parish to prey on a different community rather than address the problem.

This time, the allegations of abuse and cover-up are in Massachusetts. A defrocked priest–John Geoghan–was recently convicted and is awaiting sentencing for sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy. At least 130 more people have accused Geoghan of sexual abuse. He awaits two more criminal trials and 80 more civil lawsuits.

But now, the controversy has moved from Geoghan to Cardinal Bernard Law. Law is one of the spiritual leaders of America’s Catholic community and has been since 1985. Law recently admitted that after learning of the sexual-abuse accusations against Geoghan, he permitted Geoghan to be transferred to another church.

This is not the first time leaders in the Catholic Church have been forced to admit that they have moved priests accused of abuse from one parish to another. It is the first time, though, that someone of Law’s stature in the National Church has admitted doing so. And while Law has apologized, he has refused to step down.

Instead, he insists that the church is working with prosecutors and notes that the Boston Diocese recently gave prosecutors the names of more than 80 active and former priests suspected of sexual abuse. He attempted to explain his refusal to step down in a recent address at his cathedral in Boston when he said: "When there are problems in the family, you don’t walk away. You work them out together with God’s help."

While this statement might generally be true, it doesn’t apply in every case. And, it doesn’t apply in cases involving sexually abused children. You don’t avail children of sexual abuse while you try to rectify the problem with the abuser. Rather, you keep the abuser away from the children.

In other words, once you find out that the shepherd of your flock is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, you don’t leave the wolf with the flock. And, you don’t transfer the wolf to a new flock. You keep the sheep away from the wolf.

But Law and other Catholic leaders didn’t protect the sheep. They protected the wolves. As a result, hundreds of lives were damaged.

Now, Cardinal Law and every other church leader who turned away while children were being abused should step down voluntarily. If they refuse, they should be forced out. There’s no room in the Catholic Church for priests who are pedophiles, or for those who permitted the pedophiles to move from one flock to another.