There has been a pretty important trial going on in Philadelphia for over two
(2) months now involving priestly sex abuses in one of the largest Catholic
dioceses in the country.
More specifically it is the trial of Monsignor William Lynn,
who is not charged with child molestation but is charged with endangering the
welfare of children and conspiracy since he was in charge of priests that he
knew abused children and did nothing about that and in fact, enabled those
priests to continue to molest children in the Catholic Archdiocese of
Philadelphia.
Msgr. Lynn has pled not guilty and his defense as well as
the title of the article in the Wall Street Journal (May 24, 2012) was: TOP
PRIEST: DID BEST I COULD.
He said that the then Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who died
this January, was the only one with the power / authority to transfer priests
or to remove them from ministry and his policy was NOT to tell anyone about the
abuse and to just keep it quiet; Msgr. Lynn said that he complied with the
policy as instructed to.
Lynn claims he did what he was ordered to by a superior and
he could not go against those orders just like a private in the army must heed
orders from his superiors; just the way it is…
And here I have to interject the subject of CONSCIENCE.
Are priests not drilled over and over again, with the
concept that they are servants of God doing his good work here on earth? They
are the ministers of their charges or flocks and in charge and responsible for
their flock’s spiritual welfare and eventual salvation…even I know that!
It appears that once some priests enter the “system” they
are left to their own devices and in some cases, those devices have something
to do with what drew them to the priesthood in the first place; the position of
authority and trust as well as access to children and young adults who look at
them as representatives of Jesus on earth with all the loving and caring
attributes of Jesus himself.
I do not claim to know what all is entailed in why some
priests abuse children and young adults and others do not but I do know that
the priests in charge, those that are not pedophiles themselves, have to
recognize right from wrong and even if they are ordered by superiors to sweep
abuse allegations under the rug, their consciences should not allow them to
stand by and allow innocent children to be molested.
During the Vietnam War there was an incident called the MY
LAI MASSACRE of 1968 where US
troops killed around 500 civilians (women, children and the elderly); it was a
massacre. BUT some soldiers rebelled against the orders to kill and some tried
to prevent more killings while others wrote to their superiors after the
incident wanting something to be done about the ones who did the massacre; some
soldiers have consciences which do not allow them to blindly follow orders that
they KNOW are WRONG; shouldn’t the soldiers of God (priests) have consciences
also? It appears that many of them don’t and yet they are our teachers as to
how to get to heaven…really?
I don’t know how the trial will end and how the jury will
judge Msgr. Lynn but to me, the old ‘I followed orders’ excuse is not good
enough anymore or ever; you need to pay the consequences for not protecting
children in your care and pay dearly…
The Vatican
is trying its darned best to protect other clerics in charge that followed
orders from on high by moving them into the Vatican proper where secular law
cannot reach them. To me this is a crime against humanity perpetrated by those
claiming to look after vulnerable humans and should be punished to the full
extent of the law and that includes the pope who in my eyes, was COMPLICIT in
all the abuse through the ages…I would also try the popes that are now dead but
can be proven to have been complicit also in covering up priestly abuse, in absentia.
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