Once again, the R.C. Church comports itself as it always has, with regard to allegations of child abuse against its clergy. They repeatedly delay, deny, and obfuscate, often to the point of absurdity (as when lawyers for the archdiocese of Hartford actually argued in open court that the minor victims of a priest “liked it,” so no crime was committed, in direct contradiction of the law). They’ve been playing this game so long, it’s become a habit for them … one they refuse to break. Even when direct, unassailable evidence is slammed down in front of them.

The latest example is reported by the (MN) Star Tribune, and involves an archdiocesan official who was forced to quit (WebCite cached article):

A top lieutenant of Archbishop John Nienstedt resigned suddenly Thursday, saying his departure was necessary following an explosive court development that suggested the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis may have covered up a priest’s possession of child pornography. The Rev. Peter Laird had served as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the archdiocese, making him junior only to Nienstedt in the hierarchy. His resignation came shortly after allegations emerged in a St. Paul court that church officials knew a priest had been in possession of child pornography but continued to assign him to parish duties that brought him into contact with children. The allegations were contained in a St. Paul police report made public Thursday in Ramsey County District Court.

What happened here is hard to discern, and the story takes a couple of turns. But the bottom line is, the archdiocese destroyed a computer that might have held evidence of child pornography. What was available to police, by the time they investigated, were some “discs” (I have no idea if these were hard drives, or optical media such as CDs or DVDs); the computers in question had, by the archdiocese’s own admission, been “destroyed.”

Police chose to do nothing about this destruction of evidence; I can only assume this is because, as in so many other places, they simply deferred to the Church, because it’s the Church, after all. If you or I, Dear Reader, had dared destroy a computer belonging to a suspected child-porn collector, we’d have been thrown in jail, for sure. But the normal rules, you see, just don’t apply to God’s Holy Church. Archdiocesan officials are free to get away with crap like that.

In any event, the archdiocese denies Laird’s resignation had anything to do with this revelation (cached). Riiiiiight. As though anyone could possibly be stupid enough to believe that. What idiot truly believes the archdiocese when it says Laird’s resignation, immediately after this revelation, was merely a coincidence?

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.