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Media not wrong to be watchdog

The scandal involving Pope Benedict XVI protecting pedophile priests, obstructing justice and condoning sexual torture of children is truly disgusting to say the least. Perhaps even more disgusting is the lack of outrage and cries for justice to be carried out against the real offenders — the U.S. media, and in particular, The New York Times.

The need for protection of the Catholic Church’s most vulnerable, innocent members is a problem that has long since been resolved. It is nothing short of a an axiom of modern society that the Catholic Church will do anything in its power to make sure that priests possessed by Satan and compelled to molest and torture children will be protected at the utmost cost to the church and society itself.

Still, media elites, with their pro-child, anti-Catholic agenda, will stop at nothing to ensure the real victims do not continue to go unpunished.

With last week’s revelation that the pope himself signed a letter calling for Rev. Stephen Kiesle, a priest found to have tied up and raped an 11- and a 13-year-old, to not be punished so that the holy church itself would be spared the embarrassment, wasn’t this case closed? Why does The New York Times continue its campaign of dutiful journalism and advocacy of rape victims at the expense of the church and its bottom line?

Imagine that dozens of UH professors were accused, and later proven, to have raped hundreds of prospective freshman from area high schools. Now imagine that UH President Renu Khator had personally seen to it that these professors retained their tenure and salaries, but were transferred within the UH System.

Would you rather have the dirt slung on the face of the University, causing students to drop out and notable donors and boosters to withhold funding? Would you rather see justice carried out for the victims, their families and all those affected? Or would you rather have your degree ultimately be worth more when the whole mess is swept under the rug?

Clearly, the first two options are simply not feasible in any organization whose sole function is the expansion of its reach, stature, and profit margins.

Who are we to blame the Catholic Church for protecting its revenue streams at the expense of children’s lives? This is America, where a corporation’s bottom line supersedes everything from human rights to environmental concerns to basic decency.

To require the Catholic Church and the pope to act in the best interest of rape victims is unwise, fiscally irresponsible and downright unpatriotic. The New York Times, already stained by its absurd traditions of exposing illegal government activities, writing for an educated, literate audience and framing issues through the lens of objective reporting, should know better.

Will Barrett is a political science senior and may be reached at [email protected]

6 Comments

    • If it is, it’s written rather well. But for the life of me I can’t see if it or isn’t serious.

  • whether he was kidding or not, the pope is scum and should be tried before the hague, the catholic church disbanded, and assets auctioned off to provide reparations for their countless victims across the globe. not even joking.

  • I was mocking the sentiments expressed by priests, commentators, Bill Donahue, and a few students claiming that this whole scandal was part of some “anti-catholic” bias/agenda. Those views are as absurd as this column.

    To deride the calls for justice as “gossip,” “unfair,” or “petty” is just as sick and criminal as the molestation itself. There is mounting evidence that the Pope himself should be arrested (The vatican is not a legal state, and therefore he is not protected by head of state immunity), and punitive damages should be awarded every victim. Don’t even get me started on bishops comparing these news stories to the holocaust.

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