Susan Wright on the Right
A week ago, I covered the horrific story of the grand jury report out of Pennsylvania, revealing the largest sex abuse scandal in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States.
The report covered six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania, going back around 70 years. It involved over 300 Catholic priests and over 1,000 broken children.
The response through the years of the Catholic Church hierarchy was the absolute wrong response.
“We believe that the real number of children whose records were lost or who were afraid ever to come forward is in the thousands,” the grand jury report says.
“Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected; many, including some named in this report, have been promoted. Until that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the Catholic Church sex scandal.”
The stories rip at the heart and spirit of not only Christians, but the public, in general.
One story involved a 7 year old girl, raped by a priest, as she lay in a hospital bed after having her tonsils removed.
Another involved a priest who abused several young boys, and for his troubles, the Church recommended sending him to work at Disney World.
Pope Francis addressed the scandal in an open letter, released on Monday:
“I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons.
“Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”
It’s a delicate situation, and it takes advantage of the weakest and most vulnerable.
How do you not become enraged?
In the natural, I don’t know that you can keep from losing it. I don’t understand how you put a cap on your revulsion.
We’re called to be in control of our anger, however.
Psalm 37:8 NLT – “Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper—
it only leads to harm.”
Indeed.
It is an unfortunate result of having one more very public acknowledgment of the atrocities committed at the hands of Catholic priests. There are those in the world who, for whatever reason, and for whatever personal demons they struggle with, will associate these stories to the whole of the Catholic Church.
Not every priest is a predator.
Unfortunately for Rev. Basil John Hutsko, a Catholic priest in Merriville, Indiana, he became the target of one individual’s sense of justice.
According to a story with CNN, Hutsko was praying at the altar at St. Michaels Byzantine Catholic Church on Monday, when the man entered and violently attacked him.
“[The attacker] grabbed him by the neck, threw him down on the floor and immediately started slamming his head against the floor,” Merrillville Police Chief Joseph Petruch told CNN affiliate WBBM. “Both sides, front and back.”
Petruch added that the assailant said “this is for all the little kids” while assaulting Hutsko. Police said that Hutsko was beaten unconscious, CNN reported.
Petruch said that the evidence from this case was enough to “say it’s a hate crime.”
In case there’s any question, Hutsko has never been accused of abusing anyone. This wasn’t a case of mistaken identity. This was a crime of convenience.
And it was wrong.
A bruised and battered Hutsko was unable to give any description, so, to date, the assailant remains free.
The hope is that this man says something that gives himself away, and that no one else is hurt, in the meantime.
We’re all upset when we hear about abused kids, but random acts of violence do not heal the wounds.
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