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Article: PRIESTS NOT SOMEHOW ABOVE CRIMINAL LAWS THE U.S. CARDINALS' STATEMENT ON PRIESTS WHO ABUSE CHILDREN SUGGESTS THE CHURCH ITSELF HAS THE LAST WORD ON WHAT CONSTITUTES A CRIME. NOT SO.(OPINION)(Editorial)
- Article from:
- The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, WI)
- Article date:
- April 26, 2002
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The American cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church got it right in their statement, released Wednesday by the Vatican, when they declared that sexual abuse of children "is rightly considered a crime by society and is an appalling sin in the eyes of God, above all when it is perpetrated by priests and religious whose vocation is to help persons to lead holy lives before God and men."
But the cardinals fell short of the mark in their recommendations on how to deal with priests who commit those crimes and sins. What had been pitched earlier in the day as a "one-strike-and-you're-out" policy became a much murkier plan that would appear to countenance such abuse, so ...