Sackcloth prescribed

Regarding your editorial "Pope's American visit: What now?" (NCR, May 2): It treated the visit far too lightly. The pope described the sexual abuse crisis as "badly handled," which is like excusing the Iraq war because it was badly handled. What an understatement! He was referring to criminal and immoral activity aided and abetted by the majority of bishops, also criminal. It would have been more appropriate for him to arrive in sackcloth and ashes to indicate a penitential church rather than a triumphal tour with all the accouterments of royalty.

Look at the Vatican, which insists new bishops make sworn statements never to embarrass the church, and with two papacies that have done little to resolve the problem other than making public relations efforts to muffle the outcry. The Vatican has provided sanctuary for the most blameworthy of all our bishops, Cardinal Bernard Law, and the others have gone free without even a slap on the wrist. Oh, how I wish we had an honest church!

PAUL M. HENNESSEY

Wharton, N.J.

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