"Hit and Run Liberals"

One could hardly say it better than does George Neumayr at The Spectator today:

Phoenix Bishop Thomas O'Brien's hit-and-run incident is a metaphor for the America Catholic Church under limousine liberals. It speaks of "social justice," then leaves a trail of victims in its wake. It calls for "responsibility," then shirks it with surreal cravenness.

A carpenter is left to bleed to death while the bishop who hit him speeds away in a luxury car. This is an apt image for a liberal club that preaches a Christianity indifferent to Christ the carpenter -- a Christianity so flabby, secularized and morally empty that it barely aspires to the philosophy and holiness of Chappaquiddick Ted Kennedy.

Let us make the obvious point: O'Brien did starkly what the Mahonys of the American church do subtly. They, too, create the most hapless of victims, then sprint for the high grass. They witness life-altering accidents but don't bother to call the cops....

Nor is it surprising that in this hit-and-run ecclesiastical culture Frank Keating is intolerable. Didn't he know Cardinal Mahony wanted a lapdog not a watchdog? Didn't he know that the bishops set up the sex abuse review panel to save their own skin? Keating was altogether the wrong man for the job. He told the truth, and that's too "off the wall" for the Mahonys of the church to handle. The men who have shredded the credibility of the church decided he lacked the requisite credibility for the job. They stay, he goes.

While they puffed and pouted about Keating's comparison of their conduct to "La Cosa Nostra" -- and angled against him because he had violated their unspoken wishes, thereby confirming his comments -- a protected member of their club plowed down a pedestrian and kept driving. Only to wonder later, with a casualness that would make a mafioso proud, if he had struck a "dog" or "cat."

"As I have recently said, and have repeated on several occasions, our church is a Faith institution. A home to Christ's people. It is not a criminal enterprise. It does not condone and cover up criminal activity. It does not follow a code of silence. My remarks, which some bishops found offensive, were deadly accurate. I make no apology," Keating wrote in a parting letter.

He needn't apologize. As the carriage carrying corrupt clerics tramples on peasants, the "deadly accuracy" of his criticism is obvious to all.

(Thanks, Amy.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 06/18/03 11:48:18 AM
Categorized as Religious.