The learning curve, cont.

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Apr 09, 2003

It's painful to realize that criticism of the Catholic hierarchy in a New York Times editorial is smack-dab on target:

Cardinal Roger Mahony is fighting in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to withhold records from criminal prosecutors investigating dozens of priests. Last year, Cardinal Mahony vowed his records would be an open book. But now he is claiming a First Amendment protection for any free expression between a bishop and priest conferring "candidly." Where is the candor for the church's anguished parishioners? This claim was tried and dismissed as bogus in Boston. Resorting to it in another of the nation's flagship dioceses is a shameful measure of the damage still being inflicted on the faithful from above.