Pedophiles and Priests should be mutually exclusive.

                                                    Pope John Paul II

 WARNING:  This post is critical of the Catholic Church.  It is NOT intended to offend anyone, but some readers may be sensitive about this issue.  Please do not take this post personally.  If you disagree with anything below, please put your disagreement in the comment section.  I will not be offended by your take on this post, even if you think I will burn in hell for eternity.

I was raised Catholic.  I left the Church at the age of 22, for reasons that are not necessary to this post. Except for the occasional wedding or funeral, I haven't been in a Catholic Church since 1970.  I struggled some with my decision at the time, but since 1970, the Catholic Church has confirmed the wisdom of my disengagement many times.

Which brings us to the matter of Pope John Paul II and his 2000 decision to promote Theodore McCarrick to Archbishop of Washington DC.  At that time, Pope John Paul II knew that there were allegations that McCarrick engaged in sexual misconduct.

A recent investigation found four types of allegations against McCarrick:

1.  a priest who claimed to have observed McCarrick engaging in sexual conduct with another priest; 

2.  anonymous letters accusing him of pedophilia; 

3.  McCarrick was "known to have shared a bed with young adult men in the bishop's residence in Metuchen and Newark;" and 

4.  that he was "known to have shared a bed with adult seminarians at a beach house on the New Jersey shore.

The investigation was prompted when a former altar boy came forward in 2017 alleging that McCarrick groped him when he was a teenager during preparations for Christmas Mass in 1971 and 1972 in New York. 

McCarrick has since been defrocked.  

The Catholic Church is no stranger to egregious conduct.  The Spanish Inquisition was 300 years of brutal forced conversions of Jews and Muslims to Catholicism.  An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 were brutally executed for not converting or heresy.  The contemporary pedophile crisis has resulted in complex litigation and millions of dollars in financial damage to the Vatican.

The Catholic Church is supposed to be morally correct in both its teachings and its conduct.  Priests are representatives of God on earth.  The Pope is "infallible."

One has to wonder how the moral authority of the Catholic Church can be consistent with pedophilia, homosexuality, and the excesses of the Spanish Inquisition.  To anyone familiar with the concept of right and wrong, pedophilia is 100% wrong.  So how can the Catholic Church be a moral leader if it tolerates pedophilia within its ranks?

I can't justify pedophilia.  The Catholic Church can tolerate pedophilia, cover it up, deny it, and excuse it in their highest ranks.  This is a failing of such gravity as to question or reject all Catholic moral positions.  A religion that, when confronted with pedophilia in its ranks, has always chosen to protect priests rather than children is morally bankrupt.

Pope John Paul II knew of and ignored of allegations of sexual misconduct, including pedophilia against Theodore McCarrick.  Despite knowing of these allegations, he promoted him to Archbishop of Washington D.C., and later to Cardinal.

Pope John Paul II was declared a saint on May 1, 2011.

What possible moral code would justify the Catholic Church's actions?  NONE.  There is no justification.  I will not take moral advice from a religion that tolerate  justifies evil in its ranks but condemns it in its pews. 

                                

                                            Cardinal Theodore McCarrick