Saturday, December 23, 2017

As the Feast of the Holy Innocents approaches, Cardinal Bernard Law is laid to rest in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore

Cardinal Bernard Law, the criminally negligent prelate of the Boston Archdiocese, died this week.  Pope Francis gave the creep his papal blessing, and he will be laid to rest in a chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Law was forced from his bishop's throne after the Boston Globe published a series of searing stories on sexual abuse by priests--abuse Law knew about and covered up. Law should have gone to jail, but the Vatican spirited him away to Rome where he was made archpriest of one Rome's major basilicas. 


Law's funeral took place on December 21. I don't know when he will be buried, but wouldn't it be appropriate if the burial ceremony took place on December 28, the Feast of the Holy Innocents?


Since 1950,over 6,000 American priests have been accused of sexually abusing children, and several dioceses have been forced into bankruptcy by victims who sued the Catholic Church.  Most of this abuse was covered up by the Catholic hierarchy, yet not a single bishop went to jail.


So on the Feast of the Holy Innocents, let us say a prayer for all the children who were raped and sodomized by Catholic priests--children whose lives will never be repaired, even by the prayers of Pope Francis. Let us say a special prayer for the victims who committed suicide, for the victims who were further humiliated by the Church's lawyers, and for the families who were hushed up by parish priests who cared more about protecting their brother clerics than about protecting the safety of Catholic children.