|
|
Article: Scandal and canon law.(Before Dallas: The U.S. Bishops' Response to Clergy Sexual Abuse of Children)(Book review)
- Article from:
- First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life
- Article date:
- June 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Institute on Religion and Public Life. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
BEFORE DALLAS:
THE U.S. BISHOPS' RESPONSE TO
CLERGY SEXUAL ABUSE OF
CHILDREN
by NICHOLAS P. CAFARDI
Paulist, 255 pages, $27.95
IN A 1979 ALLOCUTION, John Paul II declared that "the task of the Church and her historic merit, which is to proclaim and defend in every place and in every age the fundamental human fights, does not exempt her but, on the contrary, obliges her to be herself a mirror of justice for the world." It was with this view of the Church as a mirror of justice that he addressed the bishops of the United States in 1993 in a public letter that described the abuse of a minor by a priest as a "grave ...