There have been a lot of stories about corruption in the Catholic Church by bad priests who are then found to be aided, directly or indirectly, by their bishops in concealing their crimes. This has taken place in dioceses around the world, and is a serious problem.
Shoebat.com has always said that if the bishops and priests will not police their own ranks, then the laity must step up. This is why Ted initiated Operation Whip, which was aimed at exposing and driving out as many of those in the ranks of the clergy who sully the name of Christ’s Church and the Faith. However, as we have also noted, a lot of the work really needs to come from inside the Church lest the secular authorities take actions against her that will have long-term and seriously destructive repercussions.
However, there are also many priests and bishops of good will who do love the Faith, who do care, and do try to do what is right in their particular situation. This must never be forgotten, and they must be commended where they are. Likewise, one must also remember that it is a great blessing that the sexual abuse scandal is coming out not because it is a scandal, but the exposure of the scandal is an opportunity to clean up the mess and move on. This compares with those who continually and more effectively keep such matters silent, as the non-exposure will rot them from the inside to the point of their own destruction.
A case in Canada happened recently where a bishop, upon hearing allegations of sexual abuse from a parishioner, started his own investigation, uncovered, and prosecuted a long-time priest in his diocese for sodomitically abusing a teenager.
Last January, a priest named Brian Boucher was convicted of sexually abusing two children in two different Montreal parishes. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Reverend Boucher had been a priest in the Montreal area for 20 years. For almost as long, there had been rumours about him — even warnings. The fact that word of his crimes even made it to the police is largely the work of one man — himself a bishop.
Bishop Thomas Dowd started hearing rumours about Boucher after joining the Montreal diocese in 2011. He made it his mission to investigate and take action.
Dowd found one of Boucher’s victims, accompanied him to the police station and presented the police with a 250 page report of his own findings.
Dowd was made a bishop in 2011, at the age of 40, making him the second-youngest bishop in the world at the time. Today he is Auxiliary Bishop of Montreal. (source)
It should not be a surprise that within the Church, there are many priest who do evil things, for if the story of the human race is a battle between good and evil, and the mass is the consummation of the fight between good and evil where evil was permanently defeated, then it makes natural sense that until the return of Christ the Church would be continually assaulted with every possible sin that exists among her members. In my opinion, it is for this reasons that it seems doubtful to the point of impossible for there ever to have been a sin that did not attempt at some point to enter into the Church, and if there is such as sin that did not enter in, then it has never been committed because it would have already attempted to strike Christ’s Church.
It is important to expose and criticize evil where it is found. But in a time of great evils and troubles it is also equally important to elevate and remember the good that men such as this bishop are doing.
The sodomite abuse problem in the Church is not something new. St Peter Damian had to fight against this problem a thousand years ago, and the difference from then and now is that the new tools, distance, and number of people affected by it have been magnified. Thus it is not one of nature, but one of intensity and spread, and the fact that it is being directly aided by government policies from the US as well Russia, for both have a long history in modern times of using sodomitic behavior to advance national ends.
That said, the words of Sacred Scripture are clear, for this is the Church which Christ constructed upon St. Peter, is that against which the gate of hell will not prevail, and no matter what happens, even if it needs be by a miracle, will eventually emerge from the ashes of whatever horrendous situation happens and will rise again, even if it means bringing about the Second Coming of Christ.
Until that happens, it is excellent to see bishops doing their jobs as shepherds, and it must be encouraged for the good of all the faithful.