The Catholic Church is making strides to fight sexual abuse

Follow one simple standard of truth

There must come a point when humanity and truth prevail. To justify looking away from the destruction of our democracy as the cost of the ends justifying the means is the height of hubris.

Self-entrenchment of positions on single issues should not absolve one’s civic responsibility for protecting the institutions and culture of humanity that allows citizens to participate fairly in society and express their views to influence their representatives.

It is time to hold everyone to one simple standard: telling the whole truth. That means everybody, especially our elected representatives.

For those who have lost faith in government, that sentiment is being exploited and exacerbated by the prolific and sinister use of alternative facts, outright lies, misleading statements and propaganda. Power held by the very few facilitates open and unfettered dehumanizing, misogynistic, racist, anti-environmental attitudes and policies.

Go vote as if your life depends on it — because it does.

‘Growth’ not necessarily good

Traditional residential, commercial and recreational development is a serious threat to the environment as a contributor to global warming and loss of life and property from natural disasters. Paving over the earth contributes to flooding and nighttime heat retention and atmospheric temperature rise perhaps as much as carbon emissions.

Spreading people and property over more of the landscape puts them increasingly in the path of fires, storms and earthquakes. As urban sprawl consumes the agricultural landscape, agribusiness takes over pristine areas, creating more pressure on the environment.

Like it or not, we must start thinking in terms of building upward rather than outward. It is time to begin thinking small.

Less may not be more, but it is better in terms of development.

The church is making strides

Catholic bishops certainly are culpable for the way they have handled accusations and assignments for clergy who were abusing youths or others. The large majority of the cases were from the last century, and the church has made some progress since then. And more is under way.

A letter writer Oct. 2 “doubts” that the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth is any better than Pennsylvania’s. (9A) But the church’s Safe Environment Program has been in place for many years here and is widely used by every parish, resulting in a large reduction in verified abuse incidents, even as accusations and investigations have increased elsewhere. In addition, law enforcement is notified whenever abuse is recognized.

The Fort Worth diocese has an enviable record, especially in this century, but Bishop Michael F. Olson is committed to doing even more. Abuse should be investigated wherever it is found, but to call the church a criminal organization is totally mistaken.

Don’t paint with too broad a brush

Yes, there has been an abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, but it serves no purpose to generalize the facts as an Oct. 2 letter writer did when he stated that the Pennsylvania attorney general’s report showed “Catholic clergy routinely sexually assaulted children,” falsely implying that the clergy as a whole did this.

The John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a leading authority on such matters, found that roughly 2 percent of priests nationwide saw substantiated accusations made against them between 1950 and 2002. As low as that figure is, it is still a disgrace, and the church is working to ensure that such abuse is stopped altogether. Over the past two years, only .005 percent members of the Catholic clergy have faced credible accusations, according to Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.