don't ask and especially don't tell, cont.

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 08, 2009

• Fact: Bishop Raymond Lahey, who was hit last week with child-porn charges, had traveled-- a number of times, apparently-- to southeast Asia.
• Fact: Tourist sites in southeast Asia have a seamy reputation. They have become international centers for the sexual exploitation of children.

Canadian journalist Rick Howe had no trouble putting the facts together and reaching a logical conclusion

"For all I know, Lahey might have had legitimate church business on his travels, but where he went red-flagged him for a check and that was his undoing," Howe said.

• Fact: Bishop Lahey's trips were "no secret" to the Halifax archdiocese.
•  Fact: Yet when Bishop Raymond Lahey was hit with child-pornography charges the local metropolitan, Archbishop Henry Mancini of Halifax, said that he was "shocked." 

Whereas Rick Howe was not privy to conversations about church affairs in Nova Scotia, Archbishop Mancini was. If Bishop had "legitimate church business" to do in southeast Asia, the archbishop probably would have known about it. And if the bishop didn't have a good explanation for those trips, since they were "no secret," the archbishop should have been able to make the same deductions that Howe made-- the same deductions that airport security agents in Ottawa made. At a minimum he should have been suspicious.

If you're not minding the store, don't complain about shoplifters. If you know that your colleague has a penchant for strolling through what is in effect the world's red-light district, and you choose to look the other way, please don't tell us that you're "shocked" to learn that he's misbehaving. 

"You know, if you can't trust the chief shepherd, who can you trust?” the archbishop asked. Good question.