The timing could have been better.
Actually, it could not have been much worse.
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the day when Christians start the 40-days of introspection and repentance leading to Easter.
But that was not what was being talked about on this Ash Wednesday. Not in parishes across Philadelphia. Not even at the Basilica SS. Peter & Paul in Philadelphia. It was there that Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia, took to the podium and discussed, for the first time in public, the controversy that is engulfing the church.
The day before Rigali had announced the archdiocese had placed on administative leave 21 priests suspected of being involved in the sexual abuse of children.
But the archdiocese did not disclose the names.
It didn’t take long for word to leak out. I actually received an anonymous e-mail with the list of names Tuesday night. We confirmed them Wednesday afternoon.
If you want to read the full list, click here.
Several of the names were linked to parishes here in Delaware County.
It was already a big story. The Delco angle made it an even bigger one for us.
If you want read our coverage, click here. If you want to read the reaction of one of the affected parishes, St. Philomena in Lansdowne, CLICK HERE.
I fully expect to hear from several people today who believe we took great pleasure in splashing the travails of the church all over our front page once again.
They believe we delight in knocking the church, and its priests.
Catholic-bashers is how they usually refer to us.
They could not be more wrong.
They will not mention the photo and story we did on the kids at St.
Gabriel’s in Norwood talking about what Ash Wednesday means to them.
The scandal embroiling the church is not going to go away anytime soon.
We are not going to ignore it. Doing just that, on the part of all too many archdiocesan officials, is what put the church in this position in the first place.
Comments