The 'image' issue

Maurice Welsh Gable in his Forum piece ("Bishops and Priests and Scoutmasters -- Oh, My!" June 27), mostly about pedophiles in the Catholic Church, makes some points but misses even more. Mr. Gable makes the point that the percentage of priests who abuse children is small. True. That the Catholic Church does many good things like educate children and run hospitals. True.

He misses the point that there is a root cause of the global pedophile crisis (and it is a global crisis for the church). The root cause is that historically the hierarchy (priests, bishops and popes) has put the image of the church ahead of the pain and suffering of children. Catholics like myself see no end of internal problems until that "image" issue is dealt with openly and finally.

He also misses the point that those good things he rightly brings out seldom were initiated or operated by the church hierarchy. With few exceptions, the schools and hospitals that we know as Catholic were founded and operated by religious orders, often women religious orders. Today these same orders of nuns are under suspicion and investigation by the same hierarchy that let them do all the hard work to start with.

Let's not miss this part of our church history, and it is finally time to abandon the image-above-all-else attitude, which we Catholics have lived with far too long.

JOHN HOUK
McCandless