"If this past weekend’s Mass reading didn’t remind Catholics of Pennsylvania’s horrific priestly pedophilia, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s letter of remorse, read at services throughout the archdiocese, did the trick. After delivering it, my church’s priest choked up — something I’ve never seen him do in 17 years of Mass attendance — as he shared his shame at God’s ministers preying on God’s children, and his sorrow at the ripping open, yet again, of abuse survivors’ psychic scabs. I was moved. I also grieve for the victims and shudder that that might have been me, as a Catholic school student for three years in next-door, 1960s New Jersey, which has its own legacy of abuse. Mostly, though, I’m angered by the “evil days” of which Ephesians warned: 70 years’ worth, revealed by a Pennsylvania grand jury report last week. That’s the time span over which more than 1,000 children were raped or molested by 300 priests, their crimes concealed by bishops.And I’m angry at the Church’s leaders who live as foolish persons, as scripture puts it, by refusing to take the one path most likely to lead out of this sinful tragedy: ordaining women..."
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