Dolan Calls Child Victims Act "Unjust" To Church

[The Magistrate]

52. More Squid's Ink, Sir, Spiced With Waving A Homosexual 'Red Shirt'

The Catholic Church systematically, routinely, frequently, acted to shield pedophiles from the law. Leading clergy saw to it pedophile outrages went unreported to the law, both by failing to do so themselves, and by intimidating victims and their families. They systematically, routinely, frequently moved men they knew beyond doubt were pedophile predators into positions where they knew they would have access to more children. To pretend that a single instance of poor, on the spot judgement, by a pair of police officers, is in any way equivalent to the systematic, routine, frequent abetting of pedophile predation by the Catholic Church is nonesense, and further, you know it to be nonesense, and do not really expect anyone to show that pathetic attempt at 'argument' a scintilla of respect.

Now a decent case could be made that police departments routinely cover-up bad behavior by police officers; brutality complaints are not dealt with properly, violent crimes by police against citizens often go unpunished. This is an outrage and an injustice, which most here oppose. It should be remedied, and with criminal prosecution and civil money judgements. It would not trouble me in the slightest were laws passed to extend the term of years for which police departments were liable for such things. But the incident you have referenced has nothing to do with the real faults of police departments, and the things for which they actually ought to be, and often are not, to great public detriment, held liable.

The point you are pressing is, in its broadest outline, even more ridiculous. Your plea is, basically, that of a man charged with burglary who cries aloud in court that there are other burglars who have not been caught, and that it cannot be just to punish him for burglary until every other burglar in the city has been apprehended. The Catholic Church has been caught engaged in systemic promotion and covering up of pedophile predation over a period of several decades: punishing it is appropriate and just, and remains so even if some other institution may be getting away with the same thing.

The Cardinal reveals himself to be a despicable, contemptible, even an evil person, with his attitude in this matter. To defend him, to align with him, is to partake, in some small but perceptible degree, of his revealed nature.