Only a handful of bishops have been implicated as sexual abusers of minors since the priest abuse scandal hit the front pages in 2002. Such names as Bishops Juan Arzube, Tod Brown, Paul Dudley, Thomas Dupre, Joseph Ferrario, Louis Gelineau, Timothy Harrington, Joseph Hart, Howard Hubbard, Anthony O’Connell, James Rausch, George Rueger, Daniel Ryan, William Skylstad, and Lawrence Soens have been accused of sexual abuse of minors. That’s only 19 bishops. Statistically, they are not the abusers. However, more importantly it’s the other bishops whom we know have covered up sexual abuse of priests that’s the real issue. Bishops are like CEO’s of large corporations. They’re in charge of the overall administration of the particular diocese of which they’re in charge. They have supreme authority over the finances, personnel decisions, and the priests who run the individual parishes. And some have been particularly dreadful when it comes to transferring and covering for sexually abusive priests in their charge. Some well known names come to mind: Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, Cardinal Law formerly of Boston, Cardinal George of Chicago, Cardinal Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, Bishop McCormack of Manchester to name a few. These bishops are documented as those who covered up for abusing priests. Don’t take my word for it. Read the Grand Jury reports concerning their behavior. If there’s no Grand Jury report you can find, check out their deposition testimony. These aren’t the only bishops who knew about abusive priests and transferred them anyway. The priests continued to abuse and when the priests were caught, the bishops feigned ignorance or hid behind their lawyers who cited 1st Amendment rights. There’s no Gospel or Jesus talk here, just bare fisted lawyers brawling to protect the institution of the church against the poor survivors of sexual abuse. It’s a sad story, a story that one could have never imagined. Yet, that’s the state in which we find ourselves. Instead of protecting children, we’re fighting over the legalities of church documents (most of which are buried) that show the depth of the corruption. A cynic may be tempted to ask the bishops what would Jesus do?