I know, I know. I always try to be respectful of bishops, even when I am critical of them, even when I am highly critical of them. Ex opere operato and all that ... they are successors of the apostles. And, of course, in the Gospels, the apostles are often clueless yet they went on to be heroic.
But, the comments of Archbishop Leonard of Brussels before a parliamentary committee are so offensive and so, well, stupid, they leave one speechless.
Those comments are also completely at odds with the tone and tenor of the comments made by the Holy Father when he has addressed the issue, as recently as last week during his speech to the curia.
Archbishop Leonard appears, like Congressman-elect Kelly about whom I wrote below, as the type of people who can do a great deal of damage because of their arrogance. It is shocking Leonard was appointed to this important post. He should be removed as quickly as possible. The issue of clergy sex abuse is simply too important - the Church's credibility as a herald of the Gospel too much at stake - to allow fools to continue uttering such offensive things.
Don't miss a thing! Get NCR's free newsletter.
Support independent reporting on important issues.
NCR Comment code: (Comments can be found below)
Before you can post a comment, you must verify your email address at Disqus.com/verify.
Comments from unverified email addresses will be deleted.
We are not able to monitor every comment that comes through. If you see something objectionable, please click the "Report abuse" button. Once a comment has been flagged, an NCR staff member will investigate.
For more detailed guidelines, visit our User Guidelines page.
For help on how to post a comment, visit our reference page.
Commenting is available during business hours, Central time, USA. Commenting is not available in the evenings, over weekends and on holidays. More details are available here. Comments are open on NCR's Facebook page.