Monday, January 26, 2009

Healing the abused comes in many forms

What I like about secular society in America is that is is always changing. If we don't like a building, we bulldoze it. If a city's name is offensive, we rebrand it. If we honor a street with the name of some important person, we give it a new name when that person falls into disgrace. Like Catholic Priest Monsignor Mathew J. Thompson. The city of Corona here in sunny Southern California honored him with a street name 30 years ago. Now they renamed the street in an effort to heal the community.  it turns out that Monsignor Thompson was a child molester.

All of the good works Thompson claimed in his long life of service to the local community were for naught. is legacy is tainted, and so is the legacy of the Catholic church. It does not matter that Thompson build schools and educated needy children. He also damaged children horrible ways. Yet the most the Catholic church will admit to is “credible allegations.”

Healing for some comes in the form of simple gestures like renaming street signs. Of course, a few million bucks helps too.

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