"The best way I can describe the situation is this: being a Catholic in the archdiocese of Los Angeles is like being a child of an addict. There are a number of correspondences between the family of an addict and the archdiocese of Los Angeles:the addict is an opportunist who engages in a systematic campaign of denial and cover-up the addict is a law unto himself the addict forms alliances outside of the family in order to sustain the toxic fiction of well-being when confronted with the fallout of his toxic behavior, he asks for forgiveness without being thoroughly contrite (ready to make amends); he is unable or unwilling to make a sustained, thorough-going apology for what he has done and for the consequences of his behavior on family life he surrounds himself with enablers and peacemakers (e.g. Todd Tamberg and Mike Nelson) he scapegoats his victims his children suffer from a particularly intense form of neglect, a neglect that would be less severe if he were physically absent; as it is, his presence continually makes present the reality, 'you are not loved for your own sake'"
The rest of the post is very thoughtful.
The behavior of the laity in response to the church's sudden and bewildering about-face of the last few decades is typical of kids when their parent(s) begin to hit the bottle: some leave outright; some leave but come back only for holidays, gritting their teeth through the shenanigans around the table, then split as soon as they can; others stay and pick fights with the parents and each other and contribute greatly to the discord; there's a whole group that quietly puts up with it all, cleaning up the messes and trying to keep up a front of normalcy; and then there's always the faction which defends the drinkers and does all they can to please and protect them, to the point of attacking anyone who would presume to suggest that Mom is not behaving properly. It's disloyal, you see...
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