In a posting last Friday (here), re: Cardinal Francis George's recent statement that many American Catholics are extremely embarrassed at Notre Dame's invitation of President Obama as its commencement speaker, I stated,But there is another problem here. As one of those many, many people who are Catholic, I find Cardinal Francis George an extreme embarrassment.
To my knowledge, Cardinal George has never responded to Voice of the Faithful’s 19 August 2008 appeal to him to step down from his position of pastoral leadership in the Chicago archdiocese, after a deposition the Cardinal made on 30 January 2008 revealed that he had kept priests with known histories of sexually abusing children in ministry after having been apprised of their history of abuse of children.
The following Sunday, the Buzzflash website published the following reflection (here), to which Frederick Clarkson has linked in a "Short Takes" column at the Talk to Action site (here):
So, it is not an embarrassment to host and lodge pedophile priests and let others continue to have contact with children, but it is an embarrassment to have the President of the United States speak at the flagship Catholic University? These are warped priorities that are as destructive to victims of priest sex abuse as they are an insult to the Presidency.
I continue to ask: what constitutes the embarrassment for American Catholics? The Notre Dame invitation? Or Cardinal George's behavior in dealing with priests who have sexually abused children?
