It took a non-Catholic...

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Jul 29, 2003

Civil-rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate, writing in the Wall Street Journal (his op-ed column, unfortunately, is available online only to WSJ subscribers for the moment) to point out what's wrong with the ballyhooed report by Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly on the sex-abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese.

The attorney general, Silverglate carefully points out, is not the Pope.

So why does Reilly presume to dictate the policies of the Catholic Church?

As a public prosecutor, Silverglate points out, Reilly has the authority to press charges against clerics who break the law. But he does not have the authority to dictate the internal policies of a religious body-- which is what he has sought to do. Silverglate also notes:

Mr. Reilly, although himself a Catholic, appears to have no understanding of the implications of a church that believes in the redemption of sinners, where pastors see themselves as shepherds rather than adjuncts to prosecutors.