"...the State of Texas makes all hospital inpatient records publicly available. An anonymous group used this data to compile a report on the alleged immoral activities taking place in Catholic hospitals and released it to the website, Wikileaks, which operates in order to house this kind of information.
A spokesperson for the group said they released the information in order to increase awareness of the immoral practices Catholic hospitals were engaging in, but were afraid of retaliation and therefore remained anonymous."
The good people who exposed these immoral practices were afraid of retaliation. That really says it all. In many dioceses throughout the United States, there is still a culture of secrecy. Often an attitude of "my pastor right or wrong" or "my diocese right or wrong" still prevails. This is why when children were being sexually abused within the Catholic Church, so many just looked the other way.
Such an attitude doesn't represent fidelity to Roman Catholicism or to the Mystical Body of Christ. It represents infidelity. And often is accompanied by an arrogance which can only be described as satanic. Children are not objects to be used for sexual gratification and unborn children are not merely "blobs of tissue" which may be expelled for the sake of convenience.
What an absolute outrage Paul. Part of the problem as I see it is that the laity are often viewed with contempt by diocesan officials. How many times has this scenario been repeated throughout one Diocese after another: a lay person or a group of several of the laity write the Bishop about a problem they have experienced in their parish and they get absolutely no response whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteIn many Dioceses, maintaining the status quo is far more important than abiding by Gospel values. Many diocesan chanceries are little more than bureaucratic apparatuses where the concerns of the lay faithful are relegated to the trash.