That’s a nice message, Abp. Vlazny – go ahead and demand your flock adbpt a “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” attitude to the child abuse scandal in the Catholic church. How about demanding priests in your care “do no evil” instead?
PORTLAND — Hundreds of churchgoers who attended Mass on Easter Sunday at St. Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception received an unusual written message tucked inside a weekly bulletin.
In a two-page statement, Archbishop John Vlazny declared that he had canceled his subscription to The Oregonian newspaper, and urged others to do the same for its displaying “hostility, arrogance and ridicule” in publishing a syndicated column, a cartoon and an editorial critical of the Catholic Church’s handling of sex-abuse scandals.
Vlazny said this is “simply not tolerable and should not be condoned without some form of protest … My friends, we Catholics are not perfect, but we are deserving of human respect.”Bob Caldwell, editorial-page editor of The Oregonian, said he was startled by Vlazny’s response. He said an editorial cited by Vlazny was a “fairly straight-down-the-line reaction to the sex-abuse scandal,” and was not, in any sense, anti-Catholic.
Vlazny’s letter has resulted only in “minimal cancellations,” according to Peter Bhatia, The Oregonian’s editor.
