Bush & Mahony: Partners in Skewed Priorities

I believe that President Bush loves this country. I believe too that Cardinal Mahony loves his church. Love, however, is sometimes just not enough.

The President and the Cardinal share a kind of moral astigmatism. They are dedicated to the institutions that they lead, but have lost sight of what these institutions are supposed to stand for.

I am confident that the Cardinal does not personally approve of child molesters but his focus is on protecting his Church. This he sees as more important than the individuals who make up his flock. I am equally certain that President Bush has no desire to be remembered as a scofflaw who undermined our precious Constitution. I believe both men have lost sight of the values which truly define our nation and the Roman Catholic Church. They have been obsessed with the institutions and not their virtues and principals.

Mahony has protected child molesters in order to accomplish what he must consider as the greater good, the Church itself. Bush has gone after terrorists without much regard for our legal traditions, believing that the danger is so clear and so present, he just has to do it.

While I may be on shaky ground in drawing conclusions about Cardinal Mahony and the Catholic Church, since I am neither Catholic nor Christian, I feel pretty secure as an American citizen who loves my country, in holding that our great institutions are only worth fighting for if they embody great values and we use, not abandon, those values in defending our institutions.