no offense

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Nov 12, 2007

"We have all been enlightened."

Remember those words uttered by the then-president of the US bishops' conference, addressing the sex-abuse crisis? Now, 5+ years after the Dallas meeting, we keep getting reminders as to just how much enlightenment has been achieved.

Consider, for example, this case of Jesuit priest, active in Chicago, who had drawn a string of sex-abuse allegations stretching back for years. In December 2002, a father wrote to archdiocesan officials, complaining that the Jesuit order had not been response to his concerns about the priest's relationship with his son. The archdiocese referred the matter to the attention of those same complacent Jesuit superiors.

OK, "mistakes have been made." We've heard that line, too. But even today, when questioned by the Chicago Sun-Times, archdiocesan spokesman John O'Malley still doesn't see a major problem:

"What's the offense? There's no offense," O'Malley said.

You see, the boy in question was 19 years old. If he had been under 18 the full strength of the Dallas Charter would have been in force. But he wasn't. So there was no problem. Next question?