Courts must work to avoid messes that are avoidable

Courts must work to avoid
messes that are avoidable

EDITOR:

Hardly a day goes by without a seeming paradox in the law courts. A fortnight ago The Vindicator told of a disgruntled victim in a criminal case — the suspected perp was set free under the “speedy trial” statute. Today, the paper’s headline reads : No prosecutor? Case is dismissed! No wonder we complain about our legal system — Kafkaesque, at times. Still, our good old legal system is far better than any other — we must keep it. But we want to believe in its morality and in its logic. We hear of cases like these, locally and nationwide, and they make us question whether law and order pay. As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote in 1913, “When the ignorant are taught to doubt, they do not know what they may safely believe in.”

And then, we think about Lear’s Fool who predicted (among other impossibilities): “When every case in law is right; Then shall (the world) come to great confusion” (King Lear, Act III, Scene 2).

Old warriors of the trial courts know the wisdom in both — the reflections of a giant of modern law and the babbling of a fool 400 years ago. We want to avoid confusion, but we just may as well recognize that the “right” decision in every case could only come about in a sterile society. Without human fallibility, who would want to live with only automatons? It would be intolerable.

We must expect occasional flaws in the system; but please, let’s all who have any part to play in the grand drama of the law roll up our sleeves and work hard to see that avoidable messes don’t come about every day.

Atty. NORMAN A. RHEUBAN

Canfield

Bishops’ election proves
church is deaf, dumb, blind

EDITOR:

In reference to the bishops’ statement titled: “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility,” I see nothing but insult coming from the most irresponsible group of ecclesiastical politicians anywhere. These are the very men who even today refuse to accept their responsibility for their cover-up and hiding the perpetrators of thousands of sex abused victims. Talk about formal cooperation in grave evil and threats to the sanctity and dignity of human life! And they want to tell us how to vote responsibly!

The bishops just met in Baltimore and held their own election to head up the U.S. Conference of Bishops. Can you believe they elected Cardinal George of Chicago? Here is a man who has been insensitive to the church’s failures; twice since 2002 when the Dallas charter was drawn up, he flaunted the church’s supposed zero tolerance policy in handling abusive priests.

In February 2003, the Chicago Sun-Times wrote about Father Kenneth Martin who resided at the cardinal’s mansion. Martin pleaded guilty two years earlier of abusing a teenage boy. When questioned Cardinal George defended the priest. U.S. Rep. Leon Panetta (D) who served on the National Review Board, told George outright that the bishops and priests have failed to deal with the scandal.

In August 2005, Father Daniel McCormack molested an 8-year-old boy, and Cardinal George ignored his own review board and allowed the priest to continue teaching and coaching. In 2006, McCormack was arrested again on charges of molesting five other boys. Again George did nothing. McCormack is now in jail, but the principal who reported the crime was fired by the archdiocese.

Scenarios equally disgusting have been reported about Bishop William Skyland, the outgoing president.

A current Los Angeles Times article by Jason Berry is titled: “Is The Church Really This Blind?”

My reply is yes; it’s also deaf and dumb.

JOHN F. WIRTZ

North Jackson