To the Editor:
As a Catholic, I am appalled at the
now-daily assaults by the liberal media against the church.
There
is no question that certain Catholic clergymen abused children and that
certain members of the church’s hierarchy failed to deal with those
abuses properly. That failure was based primarily on the mistaken belief
that pedophiles can be cured. At the time, that mistaken belief was
supported in large measure by the psychiatric community. It has since
been rejected.
For the last decade, the Archdiocese of New York
and dioceses across New York State have been working assiduously to
accept guilt when warranted, atone for those mistakes and, most
important, to take corrective action to ensure that they do not happen
again.
Over the last few months, several cases have cropped up
that took place decades ago and long before the church’s all-out effort
to acknowledge, make amends for and rectify its past failures. Some have
seized upon those cases to attack the church anew and with frightening
vigor. Those attacks are unwarranted and unfair.
Such cases, which
will continue to arise, do not meant that the church’s healing crusade
has been discontinued but rather are cases that took place during an
unfortunate time in the church’s history that is now over.
To
simply reject out of hand the church’s extensive and intense program to
heal and correct suggests the possibility of an anti-Catholic agenda
more concerned with Catholic teachings than with child abuse.
Alfonse
M. D’Amato
New York, April 29, 2010
The writer, a former
United States senator from New York, is a member of the board of the
Friends of the Catholic Church, an informal group created to assist the
Catholic Church when it comes under attack.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 