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{"id":44186,"date":"2013-04-30T10:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=44186"},"modified":"2014-12-29T23:45:31","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T06:45:31","slug":"what-is-the-matter-with-this-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2013\/04\/what-is-the-matter-with-this-guy.html","title":{"rendered":"What is the *matter* with this guy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

How, at this late date, can a bishop still be such an utter,\u00a0utter numbskull?<\/p>\n

Newark Abp Myers allows priest who *admitted* groping boy to continue working with children<\/a><\/p>\n

What baffles me is the sheer gratuitous, wilful, reckless, irresponsibly wicked\u00a0stupidity of this stuff. 30 years ago, when the Smart People were saying that second chances and rehab would fix it, I can imagine a dumb bishop listening to The Experts[TM] against his better judgment and putting a perv back in circulation.\u00a0 But 20 years after Rudy Kos and the pileup of evidence that this is just stupidly endangering children to no purpose, and 10 years after the immense catastrophe of 2002?\u00a0 And 10 years *after* saying \u201cWe will never endanger children again?\u201d\u00a0 And with an entire civilization now hyper-focused on the expectation that a bishop will do the stupidest and most irresponsible thing possible?\u00a0 What kind of mentality can possibly be at work inside that way-too-tight mitre to possibly suggest to a bishop that this was a good idea?\u00a0 Let\u2019s prescind entirely from the most bleeding obvious question \u201cHow do we protect children from harm?\u201d (since that does not, even at this late date, seem to be uppermost in the mind of a \u201cshepherd of souls\u201d like this).\u00a0 My question is \u201cHow does even the most selfish, stupid, moral dwarf *possibly* conclude that there is some benefit to be derived from an action like this?\u00a0 The criminal mind does bad things in order to achieve some selfish good end.\u00a0 He steals or kills because he hopes to gain some benefit.\u00a0 But how\u00a0 on God\u2019s green earth, even if he is an arch-criminal, instead of an archbishop, does a bishop think, \u201cIt will be a really good idea if I do something as massively stupid and certain to get into the news thing as put this guy back in circulation with children?\u201d\u00a0What in hell does he hope to gain?\u00a0 \u00a0There\u2019s a sort of preternatural stupidity and wickedness about it.\u00a0 As though a human being is, with demonic assistance and a sort of anti-grace, going above and beyond what an ordinary pagan moron acting with merely mortal stupidity and wickedness would do.\u00a0 Absolutely nothing is gained\u00a0 by it, as is usually the excuse for some evil human act.\u00a0 It\u2019s just pure stupidity and wickedness for it\u2019s own sake.\u00a0 I don\u2019t don\u2019t don\u2019t<\/em> understand it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"