[float=right] [/float]Rick Santorum to speak to Catholic Citizenship Tuesday Feb 1, 2011 at Hotel Indigo, 399 Grove Street in Newton MA on the topic "Faith, Conservatism & Politics in the 21st Century." The brochure promotes his talk this way:

Santorum passionately advocated and fought for the historic and true definition of marriage, becoming a constant target of the left. The author of legislation that outlawed the heinous procedure known as “Partial Birth Abortion,” Senator Santorum also championed the successful fight to pass the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act,” the “Unborn Victims of

Violence Act,” and the “Combating Autism Act.” Rumored as a potential U.S. presidential candidate for 2012, Rick Santorum is now a Senior Fellow at The Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Friday host of Bill Bennett’s ‘Morning in America’, a contributor on the

Fox News Channel and a columnist with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Rick Santorum has a history of controversial political positions around privacy rights and government authority to regulate consensual sexual behavior between adults, known as the "Santorum controversy." Rick Santorum has also made deplorable statements as cautionary tales about homosexuality and bestiality.

Rick Santorum also tried to assign blame for the Catholic Church Pedophile Priest scandal on parties other than pedophile priests and church hierarchy.

Santorum fingered "the media" "Boston" and "academic, political and cultural liberalism" which he says "lies at the center of the storm."

It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning "private" moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.

Rick Santorum is arguing that formerly sexually pure good-natured priests caught the pedophilia from a sick culture driven by the liberal values of academia emanating from Boston.

How does it feel Boston to have your educations and values condemed by Rick Santorum as the cause of the pedophile priests scandal in the United States?

One wonders if he blames us for the global extent of pedophile priest scandals in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and countries in Europe, Latin America and Asia too.

Oddly, the standard of "personal responsibility" commonly heard as a conservative calling card went out the wondow when it came to pedohile priests in Rick Santorum's blame laying for the Catholic church pedophile priest scandal.

Nevermind that the 2004 John Jay Report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops came to an entirely different conclusion:

The John Jay report identified the following factors as contributing to the sexual abuse problem:[18] Failure by the hierarchy to grasp the seriousness of the problem Overemphasis on the need to avoid a scandal Use of unqualified treatment centers Misguided willingness to forgive Insufficient accountability

As a Catholic, I find Rick Santorum's ignorance offensive. I would gladly dissuade anyone from aiding him in his efforts to spread his ideas.

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