And another thing ...

Today's Chicago Tribune coverage of the McCormack fiasco focused on the parish in question, St. Agatha, where auxiliary bishop John Manz presided on Sunday with Tom Walsh, the priest who was supposed to be "keeping tabs" on McCormack. The archdiocese is saying that Walsh didn't have "enough information" to do his job--which I presume means he doesn't have the training to do what they asked him to do and never should have been put in the situation in the first place--and it obviously didn't work.

I think the parishioners are letting these priests off the hook a bit easily though. They seem to want to blame McCormack only, but plenty of people, including Walsh presumably, knew what was going on and didn't say boo to anyone. If I was a parent at St. Agatha, I would be pissed off, and not just a little.

George is supposed to have an "informal" meeting with the parish today. He claims now that if he'd had more information, he would have "tried" to remove McCormack earlier.

Tried? For all practical purposes, a Catholic bishop is an autocrat, and George hasn't been shy about using his authority. He could have sent McCormack to the priest gulag up at the diocesan seminary (where a number of priests in similar situations are quarantined) the minute the police reported the allegation. He didn't.

But will he ever say the words: "I, we, screwed up. We're sorry we put your children in danger"? I'm not holding my breath.