Is Bishop Flynn of Kansas City Getting a Fair Hearing?

I did a some what critical post of relating to the events in Kansas City yesterday. See Should Priests and Deacons Be Concerned About Handling of Sex Abuse Allegations In Kansas City . My concerns still stand. Though I very much understand the position the Bishop is in. A Bishop I think highly of by the way.

On the other side there is some need for balance and there is interesting news about a meeting that took place in a Parish in that Diocese as to these events. See The Lynching of Bishop Flynn.

Here is the tough thing that those outraged need to do. They need to offer some idea of how you can accurately access abuse allegations that happened decades ago. The default position of the victim groups in the Church is often like victim groups in the Criminal law. That is an accusation menas guilt. What about our rights. Like in the criminal system the balancing of all this to get justice is no easy matter.

There are reasons why there are statute of limitations (or were) to these matters. That is it was the experience of the Court that after a period of time it became very hard to find the truth and that the "defendant" carried a much harder burden.

I hear very few suggestions as to how a investigation that looks into allegations that took place long ago can be done with fairness. I think outrage is fine if it's productive. But when it becomes a Lynch mob and the position as to accusations seems to be a version of "Kill them all and let God sort them out" thats a problem.