Jim Austin

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JIM AUSTIN

Justice for Law

We read in recent issue of the Brattleboro Reformer that Cardinal Bernard Law has not been charged for crimes against children. They were crimes that he covered up for decades. Not only has he not been charged, he has not even had the grace to resign.

Under his auspices and protection, now-defrocked priest John Geoghan engaged in a 30-year crime spree with innocent children as his victims -- some 130 children are alleged to have been violated by this creature. And he had help.

In apologizing, after being caught, Law turned over the names of more than eighty current and former priests suspected of abuse over the past fifty years. After keeping these names secret for fifty years I think it is safe to assume that the figure eighty might be on the low side.

Instead of applying the law vigorously and doing their best to prosecute every tentacle of this egregious series of crimes, the District Attorneys are ignoring the kingpin behind this criminal network.

Was I out of the country when they passed a law that said if you were a member of the Catholic Church hierarchy, you were immune from prosecution?

Cardinal Bernard Law actively facilitated the cover-up of what must be considered one of the worst crimes on the books. There are not many criminal activities more vile than pedophilia. Pedophiles are shunned in prison by murderers, rapists, and armed robbers. They are the scum of the earth. When a cop commits a felony, like shaking down drug dealers or soliciting sex from prostitutes, they are not only charged with the crime, they are prosecuted for abusing their authority. The same should apply here in spades.

Cardinal Law, instead of rushing to defend abused children, covered up the crime, paid off the parents, and moved the molester to fresh victims. He did this over and over again. Law has perpetrated a serial crime of monstrous proportions that prosecutors have chosen to ignore.

The colossal arrogance of Law and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church beggars belief. The man won't even resign from the post that he has dishonored so profoundly. Has anyone alerted the Vatican to the catastrophe occurring in the one of the largest Catholic organizations on the United States? Has Rome even got an opinion concerning the violation of its most vulnerable members?

If this were a cult of tattooed Satanists, everyone from the perpetrators to the high priests to the gardener would be getting out of jail just in time to watch the sun burn out. In Boston, the kingpin confesses and doesn't even lose his job.

Perhaps civil litigation can right this wrong to some degree. I hope that aggrieved parents and victims will sue the Catholic Church until they can't afford bus fare to transfer another pedophile.

Anyone who thought there was even a pretense of separation of church and state in this country must be severely disillusioned. Massachusetts prosecutors still have time to do their duty. Only a groundswell of public opinion will stiffen their spines and stop "them" from colluding in this foul business. How dare they not act?