we have been enlightened again

By Diogenes ( articles ) | May 17, 2007

After just 5 months of counseling-- in a program he joined as a way to avoid criminal charges-- Bishop Daniel Walsh of Santa Rosa, California, fully understands state law requiring clergymen to report evidence of child abuse.

Now you may be surprised that it takes 5 months to get that message across. You got the picture right away, didn't you? If you find out that someone is molesting children (sacramental confession excepted), you have to tell the cops. OK? Clear enough? Any questions? Right. Now what do we do for the next 4 months and 29 days?

But then you're not a bishop, and the American hierarchy as a class has been having an awful lot of difficulty with this particular subject. So much so that this prize pupil of the California system wants to set up a new program to help the priests of his diocese master the same material. The counseling program was a revelation for him, it seems.

It was that exposure to the resources we have in this community that was an eye-opener to me," he said.

I wonder what those resources are. Phones, fax machines, email? The Santa Rosa diocese is located in a hotbed of high technology, and there are probably lots of ways to get a message to law-enforcement officials in less than 3 days-- which is, by the way, about the time it takes for an accused child molester to get from Santa Rosa to the Mexico border.