Here’s an interesting tidbit in a report on the ongoing Albany-Minkler-Hubbard case. An alleged abuse victim, David Leonard, says that Fr. Minkler was exposing a ring of homosexuals in the diocese and said he brought these allegations to Archbishop Sean O’Malley in Boston, just like Minkler had done years ago with Cardinal O’Connor.
However, David Leonard was outspoken in his belief that Hubbard was harboring abusive and homosexual priests. He said he met with Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley at the end of February, and O’Malley encouraged him to speak out. “He said that we have to rid the ranks of these individuals that have caused so much damage to the Roman Catholic Church and its credibility,” Leonard said.
Bravo for Archbishop O’Malley if true, although I’d be a little disappointed that he wouldn’t take point on it himself. It would be evidence that the tight little fraternity of bishops was at work again, preventing a bishop from publicly speaking against another bishop. If you think the Mafia’s omerta and law enforcement’s code of silence are tough to crack, this is one better.
If you look at the wider picture over the past 15-20 years, you’ll see that it’s not about one bishop not speaking up about one other. There’s a long history of bishops failing to publicly call their brothers to account, even after the worst kind of actions have been admitted to. They just won’t call do it. And no one will convince me that they don’t know about what their brother bishops are doing. If we’re hearing about it, they certainly are hearing more.
Have you heard one bishop denounce the admitted actions of Bishop O’Brien? Or Ziemann? Or Weakland? Or Symons? Or any of the others? Instead what we hear is regret and thanks for a “lifetime of effective ministry.”
(The one exception was Cardinal Mahony’s denunciations of Cardinal Law, but a) Law wasn’t guilty of personally abusing anyone and b) Law is a “conservative” and thus fair game.)
It’s long past time to ban homosexual men from the priesthood.