A New Book and an Old Question

How do we address the abuse crisis as faithful Catholics?

A new book entitled Epistles of Clergy Abuse by Vincent J. Nauheimer has been published. Mr. Nauheimier's son was abused by a priest. His book is about his efforts to have the abusing priest suspended. Matt Abbot does an excerpt here. You can purchase the book here. This book is only $19.54 and I mention that because of some unfortunate complaints about the price of the last book I recommended. Ahem.

Mr. Abbott either neglected to realize or neglected to reveal that Vincent J Nauheimer is a member of Voice of the Faithful and has written poetry describing the clergy sex abuse crisis as a vehicle for the laity to liberalize the Church and take control.

An excerpt from his poem published in the VOTF newsletter:

The power of God is in every human being
The hierarchy can't prevent us from seeing
Voice of the Faithful has got good news
The power of God is still in the pews.

Now some good Catholics have said that the victims of clergy sex abuse are "wolves in sheep's clothing". So, somehow acknowledging that there has been abuse and it was covered up is attacking the Church in some misguided minds. These are the same people who were attending Mass at the Cathedral in Boston during the revelations to "support Cardinal Law".

Now when the Church played legal hardball by accusing Gregory Ford's father of abusing him, despite the fact that he was a victim of the notorious Paul Shanley and when they responded to civil lawsuits by accusing parents of negligence in "allowing their children to be abused" which you can read about here and here and here if you really don't know this part of the story, we are supposed to justify and excuse that? That my dear friends is not how a faithful Catholic responds.

Do I trust the Voice of the Faithful? Of course not. Do I understand how someone could join such a group after their child had been abused and then they, as parents had been lied to? Of course. When the only ones who acknowledge the abuse are the liberal dissidents you have a problem. It is not disloyalty to complain that child rapists are wearing priest's collars and maintain positions of trust. It is blatantly simple common sense.

Ignore the victims and malign them if you want, but we are going broke doing so. And that may not be a bad thing.