Boston cardinal calls abuse 'dark truth' in church

Published: 2007-01-10

BOSTON (CNS) -- In a column marking the fifth anniversary of the crisis over clergy sexual abuse of children, Boston Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley said that scandal was a "dark and unremitting truth" that had to be confronted. Cardinal O'Malley's comments appeared Jan. 7 as an opinion piece in the Boston Globe, the daily newspaper whose unrelenting expose of child sex abuse by priests in the Boston Archdiocese turned the secret of such abuse into a national crisis five years ago. Cardinal O'Malley noted that on Jan. 6 Catholics celebrate the Epiphany, "the manifestation of God's love for all humanity." "Five years ago, as we marked the feast on Jan. 6, 2002, the devastating revelations that Catholic clergy had sexually abused children shook the Archdiocese of Boston and the wider community," he said. "The contrast between the feast, which celebrates the light of Christ, and the dark and unremitting truth of clergy sexual abuse seemed, at first, impossible to accept." He added, "But the truth of the abuse had to be confronted."

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