In the past week, several Irish-Catholic pundits have commented on the sexual misconduct scandal in the Catholic Church. Catholic League president William Donohue has been tracking this and offered the following comments today:
“William F. Buckley Jr., William Bennett, Patrick Buchanan and Pete Hamill are understandably upset with the Church scandal. But all have written responsibly on the subject. Unfortunately, some Irish Catholics have let their Irish get the best of them.
“On March 17, Bill O’Reilly wrote in the New York Post that the current problems are due to the fact that the Catholic Church ‘is a dictatorship.’ He’s off by 180 degrees. It is precisely the opposite condition that prevails: it is the unwillingness to enforce the most elementary rules—touching virtually every aspect of the clergy, religious and laity—that is driving the problem. Bill’s head is still in the 1950s and early 1960s.
“On March 19, Jimmy Breslin in Newsday offered kudos to a priest buddy of his who violated his vow of celibacy by deceitfully getting married and is now on his way out the door. In the same column, Breslin writes of the ‘insane doctrine of celibacy.’ In short, if Breslin and his priest buddies disagree with a teaching of the Church, the Church should change and his buddies should stay. Perhaps he might try violating one of the house rules at Newsday and see how long he lasts.
“Michael Kelly in today’s Washington Post talks of ‘the systematic corruption of the Catholic Church.’ He obviously never heard of Bishop Wuerl of Pittsburgh and many like him who have successfully dealt with sexual misconduct issues. But perhaps his ignorance is deliberate.
“For sheer lunacy, there’s Maureen Dowd. In today’s New York Times, she compares the Church to the Taliban and Al Queda. I pray there’s an empty bed in a nearby asylum.”
