Unsettling

Despite how it might appear, we at “Holier Than Thou” are not obsessed with the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse problems.

No, we’re just obsessed with how the Catholic Church can continue to claim the moral high ground on ANY issue — say, California’s recent Prop. 73 parental notification for teen abortion measure, for example, or the recent Texas anti gay-marriage measure — while it’s still slogging its way through the scandal created by five decades of ignoring the repeated sexual molestation of parishioners by its priests.

Thus, today we thought we’d play a little game we like to call Match the Archdiocese to the Settlement Talks!

1) A grand jury recently concluded that this Archdiocese conspired to protect priests known to be sexually abusing children.
2) This Archdiocese recently agreed to pay $22 million to settle 43 cases of abuse dating back to the 1960s.
3) This Archdiocese plans to raise $90 million by selling off churches and church property to help it pay off previously reached sexual abuse settlements.
4) This Archdiocese failed to reach a settlement for any of the 560 sexual abuse cases pending against it, clearing the way for a judge to allow the first 44 of these cases to go to trial next year.


A) Philadelphia
B) Boston
C) Hartford
D) Los Angeles



ANSWERS
1) A: The Philadelphia Archdiocese was found by a grand jury to have knowingly conspired to protect abusive priests.
2) C: The Hartford Archdiocese reached a $22 million settlement.
3) B: Boston Archdiocese is selling off churches to make some $90 million to pay off its settlements.
4) D: The Los Angeles Archdiocese failed to reach any settlements, setting the stage for the first of its trials.