by Mary Ann McGivern
I'm finding this small blogging gig to be humbling and inspiring. I said last week that I hesitated to write suggesting questions the Right to Life Convention could ask potential presidential nominees. I didn't want the nasty responses I was guessing would come.
Don't hesitate, a dear reader wrote. Looking in from the outside, we also want your "wealthy nation to choose life" and we also "just don't see it happening." As I say, I was humbled and inspired.
I'm also learning. Reading your comments, I gained an insight not so much about how angry readers are at the Catholic church sex abuse scandal -- I knew that; I'm angry too -- but more about readers wanting to voice that anger. I actually haven't written about the priests and bishops as sex offenders, a fact that didn't deter responders. Thinking about those angry comments, I'm concluding that it is better to write more myself. We need to engage one another on this painful topic.
I'm going to two trials this week of men accused of sex offenses. My own opinion is that they are innocent. I see reasonable doubt. But the odds are that they will be convicted. Judges and juries are eager to convict for sex offenses.
We all carry so much anger, and accused sex offenders are a good goat to carry it. Except that we don't seem to get rid of the anger. We keep feeding it.
In short, I'm grateful for your thoughts. I'll tell you later this week how the trials turn out and how I came to know these two men.
