Another Leftwing Feeding Frenzy Against the Church

Now that they have successfully shilled for the Hell Bill, the liberal wonks are seeking another left-wing cause to justify their pitiful existence.  Not having found anything new, they must drag out an old "cause celebre".  Of course, I refer to the recent calls for Pope Benedict to resign for alleged roles in the clergy sex scandals and calls to drag the Vatican into civil court.

We read from the Washington Post that federal appeals courts in Oregon and Kentucky are allowing sexual abuse lawsuits to proceed against the Vatican.  We read that "in the Oregon case, lawyers are arguing that priests around the world are 'employees' of the pope for whom he is responsible."   Now look at the end of the article.  I'll quote the whole thing.  "The Kentucky case involves three victims who alleged they were abused by three different priests between the 1920s and 1970s. The Oregon case involves a victim who was allegedly abused in 1965 by a priest who was moved from Ireland to Chicago to Portland -- and who was accused of abusing along the way."  The last time I checked, the year that we're in is 2010.  So we're talking of cases that happened between 40-90 years ago.  Ladies and gentlemen, do we now see the reasons why there are statutes of limitations?  I do not mean to take away from the horror of sexual abuse, but in all our justifiable outrage against such offenses, we must remember due process.  We must remember that the accused have rights, too.  We presume innocence until guilt is proved, not the other way around.  There are also reasons why the burden of proof is on the accusor.  The prime reason is that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to definitively prove a negative.  How on earth does one try a case for a crime that allegedly happened 90 years ago?  Chances are the alleged perpetrator has long since met his Maker.  What does this become, then, but a thinly-disguised attempt to pick the pockets of the Church?

Then we read another Post article from Friday entitled "Clergy Abuse Threatens to Tarnish Pope's Legacy."  May I venture a translation, from "mainstream-mass-media-ese" to plain English?  The headlines might probably read, "We're Doing Our Damndest to Make Sure that Clergy Abuse Tarnishes Pope's Legacy."  The Post blathers on and on about how the Pope is losing popularity.  Boys and girls, can we all say "Power of Suggestion?"

I came late into this squabble, and many of my colleagues have already written good pieces.  So as not to "reinvent the wheel" as it were, I refer you now to them.  Here's one from Scotland.  Now read some remarks made by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York in a Palm Sunday homily.  Here's one from Catholic Vote Action.  We'll post as we see more.