Cafardi on Philly

Nicholas Cafardi, Dean Emeritus of the Duquesne University Law School and an original member of the national review board for the protection of children, has a detailed article up about the abuse crisis in Philadelphia over at Commonweal.

Cafardi, of course, wrote the book -- literally -- on the Church's practices before Dallas, and his article sums up some of that history. But if the situation in Philadelphia were not bad enough, Cafardi shows how the rot has spread, detailing the involvement of Bishops Joseph Cistone and Michael Burbridge -- now serving as the bishops of Saginaw and Raleigh respectively -- and how they were involved in some of the questionable decisions at the heart of this mess.

It should be clear by now that the civil authorities will get to the bottom of this, that no deeds will be left in the dark, that the truth will come out.

Those bishops who connived in Rigali's mismanagement -- "As you wish, your Eminence," and who failed to say, "Wait a minute -- what about the Dallas norms?" -- those bishops should think about where they can retire too.

This will get ugly, very ugly before it gets better. No more bandaids will do. And, please God and the Congregation for Bishops -- no more bishops from Philly until we know who did what and when.