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Because I  can. Because injustice in all it's subtle and not so subtle forms appalls me. But when it comes cloaked (sometimes literally) in the preening robes of religious hypocrisy, it deserves special attention. And I have guitars and pens. This is what I do. So why not do this? Hence, these songs.

The clergy abuse scandal that rocketed out of Boston in 2002 was not the beginning of this story. Nor, sadly, was it the end. Instead, shedding light on the actions (and inactions) of Cardinal Bernard Law and his minions served as a much needed wake up call for society. There is scarcely a diocese in the nation that has not been affected by this scourge. Sexual predators concealed in white collars are now being pulled from their spider holes with numbing regularity. The trails of  human wreckage left in their assorted wakes is now coming to light....sometimes decades after the abuse took place. And naked for all to see was (and is) a church seemingly indifferent to the suffering of the most vulnerable of it's flock. The children. The lid of high powered attorney's, hush money, and the sickening practice of shuttling pedophile priests from parish to parish was finally blown off. And when the laity deduced that the now public multi-million dollar settlements may have indeed been at least partially financed by the Sunday collection basket...well they got pissed. And then they got even. They stopped giving. Law and the Vatican may have ignored the cries of children, but the wailing of creditors sure got their attention. Thus far the church worldwide has paid out 1 billion dollars to settle clergy sexual abuse claims. That's billion with a "B". Imagine how many now closed Catholic schools could have remained open if these nickels and dimes had still been in the bank.

"It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones."

So says the gospel of Luke. Must have missed that one in the seminaries.

What remains unclear to me is, to use a true sickening example, how a man supposedly devoting his life to the ideals put forth by Christ could masturbate a pubescent boy inside the confessional booth, then bind him by the very power of that "confessional" to speak not a word of the act. He commits such grievous sins in full figurative view of his superiors....who sit on a locked safe full of reports documenting similar past behaviors...secure in the fact that actual canon law is on their side. Ever heard of "Crimen Sollicitationis"? It's in internal church document that imposes strict secrecy upon perpetrators, witnesses, and even the victims of sexual abuse, under threat of excommunication. You simply cannot make this stuff up.

Once such Boston priest had over 10,000 pages of internal church memos devoted to his predilection for young boys. Guess how many of the documents mentioned the victims of his crimes? None. Even 16 years of Catholic schooling haven't prepared me to explain that.

This music is created for and dedicated to the courageous members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. I am not affiliated with the organization in any way, nor is this project officially endorsed by them. I simply admire their work and was inspired by it.

-- T. Flannery
2/11/2007
Archbald, PA