almost ceased

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Mar 31, 2006

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles' Tidings has published the 19th in its series of abuse-related stories "compiled and edited by an advisory group to the Media Relations Office":

While the press sometimes gives the impression that the bishops adopted a zero tolerance policy because of the proliferation of abuse by clergy exposed by the media beginning in 2002, that was far from the case. The Church had been dealing with the terrible problem of clerical sexual abuse for years, and by 2002, that abuse had thankfully almost ceased.

How's that for a specimen of straight-from-the shoulder honesty?

Some of us haven't forgotten the provisional solutions that were floated around by the bishops in the period between January and June of 2002 (bracketed by the Boston Globe exposé and the Dallas meeting of the USCCB). "Zero Tolerance" was embraced at a shotgun wedding after dalliances with several more congenial compromises. Remember the warm public reception accorded the proposal of a "Three Strikes and You're Out" policy? Remember the exalted view of the priesthood it revealed?

Larry Wright, Detroit News, April 2002.