Canadian Bishop Dabbling in Child Porn?

Bishop Raymond J Lahey of Antigonish, Nova Scotia has been charged by Ottawa police investigators with Possession and Importation of Child Pornography. When he was trying to re-enter Canada at the Ottawa Internationa Airport, officials of the Canadian Border Service Agency found suspicious graphics on his laptop. He has since submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI, who subsequently accepted the resignation.

In the (likely) event that these charges are valid, Bishop Lahey has acted as the "hired hand who preys on the sheep" as opposed to the true shepherd, in the most gross violation of his episcopal ordination. I suspect this case is not as rare as I and many other might wish it to be. As we read books such as "Goodbye, Good Men" by Michael Rose and "Amchurch Comes Out" by Paul Likoudis, we get a glimpse as to how pervasive is sexual aberration within the Roman Catholic clergy.

The fall 2009 meeting of the US bishops will occur in Baltimore from November 16th through the 19th. I suspect this will be a hot "off-the-record" topic of discussion around many dinner tables and in small groups. I hope they take some warning.

Let us pray now for:

1. Bishop Lahey, that (if indeed guilty) he repent for these objectively mortal sins against his vows of celebacy
2. all clergy and religious whose spiritual eyes are similarly blinded
3. that the bishops, as a whole, will finally find a backbone to deal properly with these problems in their midst and stop being afraid to police their own
4. for the children who were victimized when the images on Bishop Lahey's computer were created, and for all such children who need bishops to protect them, not prey upon them
5. in thanksgiving for the Canadian Border Security Agency and their diligence (perhaps they'd like to work for our agencies on the Mexican borders?)