Manalastas’ seething and consistent smacks at the Catholic Church in his Feb. 24 column “House bill removing federal funding from Planned Parenthood funds GOP’s moral hypocrisy” are getting boring.
Once again he stereotypically accuses priests and bishops of being conspiring, elusive child abusers. Once again, he needs to do his homework. The policy of the Church toward a clerical sex offender boils down to these two points: immediate removal from his position in the clergy and compliance with all local civil laws concerning sexual abuse.
He should read the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Essential Norms” on the issue of sexual abuse. These norms have been in place as they are now since 2002, and in various forms since at least 1995.
Sure, some priests and bishops have done these detestable things. They have been defrocked and imprisoned, or their cases are pending. But abuse is not found solely in the Catholic Church.
Elementary school teachers, celebrities and athletic coaches have been implicated in such abuse before. And now Planned Parenthood is in the midst of such an accusation. Manalastas lauds the crusade against the Catholic Church, adamant to “defund” the Church by removing tax-exemption. But he vilifies attempts to defund Planned Parenthood. You can’t have it both ways.
John Bales
Second-year biology student