The Cardinal and the cult

Francis Cardinal George was Archbishop of Archdiocese of Chicago from 1997 till resigning in 2014 due to failing health. In 2002, weighing in on the exploding child sexual abuse crisis infecting the priesthood worldwide, George decreed that priests must be removed from ministry after a single act of sexual abuse. Yet, we learned yesterday, in the Church's $4.5 million settlement with 3 boys abused by Father Daniel McCormick, that George failed to have McCormick removed after his August, 2005, arrest, letting him remain at at St. Agatha Catholic Church, till a second arrest five months later. George was revered in the press throughout his tenure in Chicago, given valuable space in news shows that always seemed to this non-theist as out of place in this secular society. Yet, George's role in enabling priestly sexual abuse of children got neither the attention nor the condemnation it deserved. More million dollar settlements are pending from the McCormick chapter of the sordid Catholic legacy of denial, obfuscation and coverup by an insular religion that always put the Church's reputation for infallible holiness above the welfare of children. How many of those victims were enabled by George's involvement in this historical tragedy will never be known though it may be substantial.

We should understand that every religion is essentially a cult, creating a closed community of imagined belief to entice believers looking for relief from the mystery and ennui of life. It demands unwavering belief, based strictly on faith, with truth jettisoned for mysticism. There is nothing inherently wrong with any cult as long as it strictly serves individual and public good. Alas, as the centuries long saga of child sexual abuse, enabled by a bizarre prohibition on married priests and an hierarchy determined to protect the cult against criticism and scorn demonstrates, the interests of the public and the cult are often not in line. Cardinal George was simply following a dictates of the cult instead of conscience.