Family Time -- Steve Smith

SNAP is an acronym for a group called “Survivor Network for those

Abused by Priests.” Take a guess as to how many members they have

nationwide. Sitting down? It’s 3,500.

Anyone outside of the cave where Osama bin Laden is hiding knows that

the Catholic Church is involved in one of the world’s longest-running

crimes. And it wouldn’t be so bad if the whole problem was about

something as petty as money or egos, but it’s about our nation’s

children. Little kids -- 6, 7 and 8 years old and up -- being exploited

sexually for years by people in positions of authority.

To make matters worse, it appears to have been common knowledge

throughout the organization. For example, the Boston Archdiocese recently

turned over additional papers to lawyers revealing that church officials

knew that the Rev. Paul Shanley, who has been sued for alleged child

molestation, had publicly advocated sex between men and boys.

Instead of rooting out these monsters in collars and making examples

of them, church official laundered them, retiring some, shuffling others

from one place to another, never letting the new church congregation know

what happened at the old one.

When it came time to pay the piper, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los

Angeles revealed in his e-mails that he was more concerned with damage

control and his image than he was in punishing the evildoers and creating

safe churches for Catholic children.

In not one of the Mahony e-mails I have read or heard did he express a

syllable of grief over what happened to the tiny victims.

Now there are allegations that several Orange County priests had been

molesting children. One of them, Father Jerome Henson of St. John the

Baptist Church in Costa Mesa, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy

20 years ago. He is the fourth Orange County priest to be investigated

for molesting children.

I don’t know if Henson is guilty. This column is not about that

investigation. This column is about powerful organizations -- in this

case, the Catholic Church -- covering up problems, stonewalling

investigations and minimizing the effect of their outrageous deeds on our

society. This is about the narrow-minded, selfish, arrogant focus of the

people in charge; people who believe that preservation of the status quo

and their own power is more important than the effect on our children’s

behavior.

That effect is played out every minute of every day as otherwise good

teachers, coaches and counselors -- people who enjoy working with kids

and filling in where many parents can’t -- must be very careful about

what they say and do to the children under their control.

Before the scandal, it was tough enough to work with kids who are

tired, kids who’d rather be somewhere else and parents whose agenda

includes a lot more than just having fun on the baseball diamond or

soccer field.

Now we again have to worry about being under a microscope. And if you

are male, that lens is the size of Montana. That will be enough to keep

many good people -- the kind we need to help end this nightmare -- from

becoming involved with kids.

A few days ago, the American cardinals of the Catholic Church met in

the Vatican with the pope. While the rest of the world was proclaiming

this to be an “American problem,” our guys had the perfect opportunity to

come out swinging.

But instead of adopting a less-than-zero-tolerance child abuse policy

or vowing to criminally prosecute any priest accused of molesting

children, in my opinion, what they decided means that kids don’t rate.

During the meeting, the pope said the priesthood had no place for

“those who would harm the young.” Duh. That, readers, is about as weak a

statement on this issue as you’re going to get.

At the meeting, the cardinals said they would recommend a process to

defrock any priest who has become “notorious and is guilty of the serial,

predatory sexual abuse of minors.”

Notice the word “serial” as the qualifier for any action. That,

friends, is a sick policy.

I’ll bet your dollars to my doughnuts that if they were meeting to

consider what to do about priests who are embezzling church funds, not

molesting kids, that they would have brought back the rack in a

heartbeat.

Thanks a lot, Catholic leaders. Thanks for perpetuating this

despicable behavior only because it suited your needs. Thanks in

particular to the Catholic cardinals who provided the justification for

parents to continue the overprotection of our kids for another 10 years,

just when those kids were getting used to playing outside again without

having to wear a uniform.

Thanks for making life miserable for those of us who teach, coach and

counsel, all because you had to preserve your power and your money and

your sick priorities.

Thanks for nothing.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. Readers

may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (949) 642-6086.