Bishop Robert Cunningham has been taking a great deal of heat in the
past week for saying, in a case involving a 13-year-old who was orally
raped by one of the Diocese of Syracuse's priests: "The boy is culpable."
In the face of repeated incredulous questions by the victim's attorney,
His Excellency went on to explain that the child could be regarded "an
accomplice to [the perpetrator] in a sexual sin" and that he
"cooperated" in his own assault.
Confronted by the predictable firestorm of criticism, the Bishop is now in full damage-control mode, protesting that we should not be misled by the plain meaning of his words. But perhaps we ought not to be too hard on the poor man. After all, he said nothing on that day four years ago that many other high-profile Catholic clerics have not also said, in almost identical terms.
http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/bishops_views_on_sex_abuse_are_embedded_in_the_structure_of_the_church_commentar.html
Confronted by the predictable firestorm of criticism, the Bishop is now in full damage-control mode, protesting that we should not be misled by the plain meaning of his words. But perhaps we ought not to be too hard on the poor man. After all, he said nothing on that day four years ago that many other high-profile Catholic clerics have not also said, in almost identical terms.
http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/bishops_views_on_sex_abuse_are_embedded_in_the_structure_of_the_church_commentar.html