The Black Madonna

This entry originally appeared in The Black Republican.

Frank Keating has resigned as Chairman of the Catholic lay review board founded after last year's National Council of Bishops meeting. He wrote an op-ed in today's New York Times.

Sadly, a few church leaders, including some in large dioceses, chose to resist and obstruct the board. When we asked valid questions, they gave us few or no answers. Where information and cooperation was called for, we received delay or an outright refusal to help.

These few leaders turned to their lawyers when they should have looked into their hearts — and I expressed my disgust with them. I am a candid person, and that makes some people uncomfortable. So be it. Obstructing justice, excusing and concealing those who victimize innocent children: these are not the actions of holy men. They are sins — and they are crimes. God may hold them accountable in the next world, but we will certainly hold them accountable in this one.

Unfortunately, I don't share the Governor's hopefulness. The child abuse scandal was merely a very public manifestation of a community in serious trouble - a condition that will continue to hang over the Church until something drastic changes.

That drastic change will not come any sooner than the installment of a new pontiff.

I had a theology professor in college who bluntly told us that he looked forward to the death of the current pope. He explained that he prayed for John Paul's health and well-being, but believed as a matter of principle that the pope's administration was running counter to the necessary church reforms begun by John XXIII. At the time, I discounted this opinion as the perverted viewpoint of a notorious (but good-intentioned) liberal.

Little did I know that he would be proven to be the sane one, and our own priests were the perverts.