As a Catholic, I find myself becoming sick with rage whenever I read a story in the news about a sex offender in the priesthood, and every time our leaders speak, all that I can think is, “it is not enough.”

Thomas Ganley’s sentencing hearing was more than I could stomach. One of his “supporters” testified she was “really, really, really relieved” to discover Ganley’s victim was a teenager. Another supporter testified Ganley’s relationship with his victim was “consensual.”

Behind every deviant priest who is caught and arrested, there are those with this kind of twisted thinking that enables this kind of disease to grow in the church. So I do not want to hear about “zero tolerance” when it only applies to the actual priests who are found to have engaged in this behavior. I want zero tolerance for every bishop who fails to show 100 percent accountability and discretion in these matters.

Case in point: In the Diocese of Trenton, Bishop David O’Connell removed priest Matthew Riedlinger in 2012 for speaking with someone he believed to be an underage boy online, but refused to tell parishioners the reason for the transfer until inquiries were made by the Star-Ledger more than a year later. Why is O’Connell permitted to remain a bishop?

And supporters who would defend Ganley, who would minimize his crimes — there ought to be zero tolerance for their kind as well. Lay Catholics who behave like this ought to be barred from any form of lay ministry in the church beyond sitting in the pews on Sundays.

There is a culture within the church that allows this kind of abuse to exist and that culture needs to be pulled out by its roots.

Bill Murphy

Belvidere