What's worse?

The joyful season of Easter reminds us that no matter how bad things get we must never cease to trust in God. Despair is the ultimate sin. Spera in Deo!

But inasmuch as our current abode subsists in this vale of tears we cannot fail to take account of the realities which surround us.

One of the most horrifying stories in the news lately has been that of the Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell whose trial is ongoing... oh, wait a sec: it hasn't been in the news! Even as each day's testimony elicits new and more chilling accounts of babies born alive and decapitated, mothers gravely injured and left without medical care, untrained personnel, squalid and unsanitary conditions; the MSM's coverage is... nonexistent! So what's worse? Objectively the heinous sin and crime of abortion - and outright infanticide - is orders of magnitude worse that the MSM's dereliction of their duty, there isn't even a question there. But neither can we minimize the consequences of a partisan media practicing advocacy journalism, in this case by malign neglect. It has already done, and will continue to do, great harm to our nation.

In a similar vein, what I euphemistically call the "Boston Problem" (yes, I know about L.A. and elsewhere!) might be "old news" by now, and one cannot minimize the evil done by these sexual predators in clerical garb, but again we should not fail to consider the "collateral damage" done to the Church... and to the Faithful! How many times have you heard: "The Church has no credibility on [marriage, artificial contraception, homosexual acts, etc.] when the priests are buggering little boys!" Leaving aside the for a moment the particulars - n.b. these cases involve a very small number of clergy and are overwhelmingly instances of predatory homosexuals rather than "paedophiles" - this is the perception that has been created in the minds of the public. And so, those looking for an excuse to ignore the Church have one, and many others who might be attracted to Her recoil in disgust at the foul spectacle of these flagrant sins. Of course the actual sins of the priests are worse, but their immediate damage is limited to a specific number of souls. But the repercussions for the Church, and for those sould who may at this moment be losing the means of salvation through mistrust of the Church, continue to multiply.

What's the common thread? Aside from evil that is? I suppose it is that so many of us have lost any sense of shame, of personal sin and community standards. This is the fruit of the poisoned tree of 1960's relativism and its given our society the worst case of indigestion imaginable.