Acting out

By Domenico Bettinelli, Jr. ( articles - email ) | Dec 18, 2003

Quoting Cardinal Mahony from Diogenes' post below:

"Sometime in late 1986, Baker disclosed to me that he had problems in the past of acting out sexually with two minors. "

Acting out. Not sexually molesting. Not engaging in fornication or, more generically, sexual sins. Acting out. That's the language of non-judgmentalism.

One could "act out" in many ways, some sinful, some not. But sin is sin. Abuse is abuse.

Words mean things, as we've come to understand, and Cardinal Mahony reveals much about his view of serious sexual sin, about child sexual abuse, about homosexual activity, by the use of the phrase "acting out" in private correspondence.