Anti-Catholic Bigotry on Parade: The Boston Globe's Michael Rezendes
Consider this: Just a few months ago, Boston Public Schools leveled a two-week suspension on a school principal for not reporting a case of suspected sex abuse by a special education aide. After the principal failed to report him to the police, the aide transferred to another school, where he reportedly was busted in the act of sexually assaulting yet another special needs student.
The Boston Globe did not feel this repugnant story was worthy of any front-page coverage even though this was a clear example of abuse and institutional cover-up taking place today. Neither has the paper bothered to follow up on this stomach-turning story, nor has it investigated how Boston Public Schools handles abusive teachers system-wide.
Indeed, the suspended school principal has even since returned to her school without any media notice!
Catholic Church abuse from years ago: Always front and center at the Globe
Meanwhile, the Globe has plastered a top-of-the-front page, 2,500-word article – with a prominent color photo – about the nearly decade-old case of a former Jesuit priest from Chicago, the abusive Donald McGuire.
And if the one prominent story were not enough, the Globe published a second front-page story the next day for even further emphasis.
Both articles were penned by the paper's notorious Church-basher Michael Rezendes.
As with any act of child abuse, the acts committed by McGuire were detestable. He is deservedly being punished for his crimes. Justice demands nothing less.
Abuse and cover-ups in schools today ignored by the Globe
But the incessant campaign by the Globe against the Catholic Church is irrefutable. While it once won a Pulitzer Prize nearly a decade ago for reporting the story of abusive priests being transferred in the Archdiocese of Boston, the paper blithely ignores evidence of abuse happening in other institutions today in Boston right under its nose.
With evidence of abuse and cover-ups in the Boston Public Schools, the Globe would rather recycle years-old allegations of abuse in the Catholic Church. Why? The Globe's agenda now seems to be less about exposing abuse and more about piling on the Catholic Church over old news.
"[T]hink the Catholic Church has a problem? The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests"
That's Hofstra University's Dr. Charol Shakeshaft, the author of a mind-boggling 2004 report by the U.S. Department of Education about massive abuse and cover-ups happening in our local public schools.
That report also chronicled an earlier 1994 study that chronicled how zero of 225 admitted cases of teacher abuse in New York state in the early 1990s were reported to the police.
The double standard and bigotry are clear. The outrageous abuse of innocent children only gets the Boston Globe riled up if Catholic clergy are involved.
Anti-Catholicism? Absolutely.
[UPDATE, Sun., 4/22/12: Reliable Globe Church-basher Joan Vennochi used the McGuire case to take some potshots at the Church in a Sunday commentary, further bolstering our point.]
