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Cardinal Law Is Hurting the Church

I was raised in a Catholic household. I was an alter boy at Saint Patrick’s Parish for many years. I graduated from Saint Patrick’s grammar school. I have great respect for every priest I have ever served with. I have never experienced anything but love and kindness from all of the nuns and priests I have ever come in contact with. I tell you this because I believe Cardinal Bernard Law should resign. And I tell you this because the leaders of the Catholic Church are now digging in their heels and taking a peculiar stand.

A spokesman for the Church said last week that the Cardinal is not an elected official and will not give in to public pressure from the "enemies" of the church in the media. It seems Cardinal Law and the leadership of the church still doesn’t get it. They are circling the wagons like a politician who has just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The strategy is to demonize the people who are speaking against you and wait out the scandal till it fades from the headlines. Unfortunately, this scandal isn’t going anywhere as long as Law remains.

This is not about an evil conspiracy by the leftist media to destroy the church. This is about a man in a leadership position who has admittedly moved pedophiles from community to unsuspecting community. Their concern should be caring more for the people in his church than Law's career or his legacy.

I have to say as someone who has never been an enemy of the Catholic Church that this is dividing Catholics all over the state and the country. While there may be zealots in the media who would salivate at the chance to destroy the church, the fact is, the villain is not the media this time. It is Bernard Law and his failed public relations strategy.

What we know is that at least one priest, and most likely a number of others, have violated the trust of the church and the innocence of children in their care. We know that Cardinal Law, whatever his motives, knew about these priests and their behavior. We also know that Law transferred these men from parish to unsuspecting parish where they found new children to prey on.

Given these facts and putting Law’s motives aside for a moment, it is clear that the Cardinal didn’t do what he was responsible for doing. He did not protect his parishioners from a threat within their church. What he did was protect the predators of children. For that reason alone, regardless of what was in his mind at the time, he should not be a Cardinal. Even if you believe that Law acted the best way he could at the time of these incidents, he still failed to protect the people in his church and by doing so, brought all of this upon himself as well as Catholics everywhere.

This issue has cast a very dark cloud on the good men and women who serve God everyday. These are trying times for people of faith. And it isn’t going to get any easier, especially if Law sticks around. It isn’t fair to the victims of pedophile John Goegan. It isn’t fair to 99% of the holy men and women who have now gained a stigma because of all of this. And it certainly isn’t fair to the millions of Catholics who look to the Cardinal as a spiritual leader.

Law himself should know the intense value of symbolism. While a Catholic Cardinal symbolizes the faith and love of the Jesus Christ, today this particular Cardinal symbolizes child abuse and cover ups. These two symbols are incompatible. One will always give way to the other, and I believe it already has.

Who among us can ever look at Bernard Law again without thinking about the children who have been destroyed by his decisions? Who among us can ever see him as the symbol of peace and hope for Catholics everywhere?

A symbol of the church who also symbolizes pain and dishonesty (deservedly or not) desecrates the good name and great works of everyone in the Catholic faith. While we can forgive him, understand him and some even defend him, Bernard Law is doing the church more harm than good by refusing to step down. He is preventing a healing process from taking place by continuing to stand as a lightning rod for the entire world to see and judge.

For Catholics everywhere, healing and change can only come from within the church itself. That means pressuring Law to resign without judging him and without public fanfare. If that doesn’t happen, Laws’ legacy of abuse and cover-ups will haunt the church for many generations to come.