Justice Samuel Alito, one of six Catholics on the Supreme Court and author of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, laments that too many Americans have lost our way: We are not religious enough, he told an audience of other conservative Catholics in Rome, and therefore our “increasingly secular society” and “new moral code” pose a threat to religious freedom, its constitutional protection notwithstanding.
Nowhere in this speech did Alito mention the specifically steep decline in the number of churchgoing Catholics, and one of the major reasons for that decline: The sexual abuse of minors by clergy over multiple generations and the cover-up of those horrors by the hierarchy.
We were reminded of the depressing scandal again on Tuesday when survivors stood outside the office of the Maryland Attorney General to demand results from a lengthy investigation of abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. With Attorney General Brian Frosh leaving office in January and the lead investigator, Elizabeth Embry, newly elected to a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, survivors are concerned that they might never see a final report. But they should have faith in Frosh, a man of integrity, and in Embry, an experienced prosecutor. Frosh’s spokeswoman says significant resources have been devoted to the investigation, and a report is expected “in the next few months.”
