CATHOLIC: Don't split hairs

It’s sad to see letters in this column by Catholics who desperately duck, dodge and distance themselves from the admitted child sex crimes of ex-seminarian Kevin Sloniker. “He belongs to a break-away sect,” several of them say.

That’s partially true, but it raises two simple questions.

First, why wouldn’t Idaho and Washington Catholic officials want to use their pulpits to reach out to anyone who was molested by Sloniker regardless of what type of Catholic affiliation Sloniker might claim?

And second, if Sloniker’s sect is somehow no longer connected to the Vatican, why did Pope Francis give priests of that group, the Society of St. Pius X, permission and authority to offer confession to Catholics? (Don’t believe me? It’s in the National Catholic Reporter just two months ago.)

So let’s stop the hair-splitting and let’s all try to find any man, woman or child who was sexually assaulted by Sloniker and get them help. Let’s share what we know or suspect about Sloniker’s crimes to law enforcement, so he’ll hopefully spend longer behind bars away from children.

And let’s stop playing “attack the messenger” and stay focused on vulnerable children and wounded adults.

JUDY JONES

SNAP

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests