. . . was born 101 years ago, today, on July 17th, 1917, in New York City. He only got to walk this earth for 81 of those years, due to his love of golf. Well, not exactly. But he did die in a hospital recovery room after successful knee replacement surgery but unsuccessful patient care afterward. Although I’m sure this affected most areas of his life, especially any that required mobility, his stated reason for the operation was so he could play golf with less pain. Unfortunately, he never got to play another terrestrial round of golf to test that out. This November will complete our 20th year without him.
Everyone who knew him would say they could see parts of Phil Toale in his children, whether a physical resemblance or a corny sense of humor and gregarious nature. I know I can easily see my father in the facial expressions and mannerisms of both my siblings. And much to the chagrin of others, when any two of us are together (beware if it’s all three!) there results in an inevitable attempt to out-wit each other with the most clever puns, in Dad’s honor, of course….
The Roman Catholic Church is like an ocean liner, in the sense that it is heading straight toward an iceberg but can’t seem to make course corrections significant or impactful enough to change direction and avoid disaster. It’s a disaster that is inevitable. Eventually, all empires grow too corrupt to sustain themselves and must fall. Unfortunately, while steaming along to this inescapable end, countless lives have been destroyed as the direct result of clerical elites attempting to preserve a status quo they have come to enjoy and believe they deserve.
Recovering from the effects of child sexual abuse takes a lifetime. There is no being cured of it. But, thankfully, life does regain the sweetness and lightness that was lost when, over time, you learn to stop blaming yourself for what happened.
Pope Francis did an amazing thing, for a pope, that is. He declared that the “culture of abuse and cover-up”, as it pertains to the sexual abuse of children by the Catholic Church, must end. The statement was made in a letter to the Catholics of Chile, where a sex abuse scandal has been on display for the whole world to see unfold.
The same disparity that enables exploitations like this to occur also keeps them from getting exposed. This is how it has always been. Except now the balance of power has shifted. There is strength in numbers and courage inspires yet more courage. The flood is far from over and hopefully will continue until a true shift in society’s passive acceptance of this kind of behavior is finally burned away.
That might as well be what the Republicans have been saying for all the years they’ve blocked the Child Victims Act (“CVA”). Relying on a set of talking points (given them by lobbyists) they stall for time. By acknowledging that justice for survivors is an important issue they are studying, they try to placate activists. Then they qualify it by saying it is a more complicated issue than we imagine. Yet, they assure us, they are actively discussing it in conference and will come up with a solution that is fair to everyone, given enough time to do their job.