Thank you for printing Eugene Cullen Kennedy’s column on the Feb. 3 Commentary page (“Official Catholicism: The Enron of religious institutions”). The Tribune will be accused of being anti-Catholic, but Kennedy accurately reflects the disgust of many Catholics over the ongoing cover-up of pedophile priests. The Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago is closing 14 schools in areas that badly need a Catholic educational presence. Could the millions that our archdiocese spends on out-of-court settlements to victims of abuse by priests have kept those schools open? We will never know, because the chancery won’t discuss such details with parishioners. The old “pray, pay and obey” mentality remains. The pope orders Catholic lawyers not to have anything to do with Catholics seeking divorce, yet the church spends millions on lawyers to cover up church scandals. Obviously what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander.
