Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Who has had enough?

"HALIFAX, N.S. - The archbishop of Halifax expressed his own frustration and issued an impassioned plea to his parishioners Sunday to keep their faith as they grapple with allegations that one of their bishops was in possession of child pornography.
Archbishop Anthony Mancini said the church has had enough of charges of sexual abuse and impropriety. His comments come days after Bishop Raymond Lahey, from a Nova Scotia javascript:void(0)diocese, was charged in Ottawa with importing and possessing child pornography."
The above quotation from a Halifax newspaper certainly invites the conclusion that Archbishop Mancini has an unusually large amount of guile (and gall) in him even given the standards in recent years among the prelates of the Church of Rome. There is an unmistakable implication that the "charges of sexual abuse and impropriety" are signs of a flaw in those who make such allegations. The implication is cunningly worded so as to give the archbishop "deniability" - i.e. he will claim in righteous indignation that this is not what he meant - and yet allows him to evade (again) the church's responsibility by blaming those who discern and report wrongdoing

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