Don't Blame The Messenger

This comes from the local Call-To-Action folks:

Messengers
In a recent letter to the Monitor, Mr. Edwin Rodriguez takes out after Call to Action (CTA) for causing the furor over Deacon Gerbermann’s homily. Two parishioners are responsible for the original report to the newspaper: Harry Mosher and Roland Quintanilla. Neither of these people are members of CTA or CTA-RGV.

The newspaper reporter, Kaitlin Bell, called me and asked for a comment about the Deacon’s remarks, indicating that she knew that CTA-RGV was an organization working on a resolution of the clergy sex abuse scandal. This was probably because of the screening of the film “Hand of God” that CTA-RGV was sponsoring that same weekend. I told her that I had not heard the homily but if the remarks were as Harry and Roland described them, then they amounted to blaming the victim.

Call to Action did not precipitate this flurry of publicity—the Deacon’s remarks and the failure of Monsignor Brum to act properly and quickly to diffuse the situation are at fault. You always hear, “Don’t blame the messenger,” but in this case, CTA isn’t even one of the messengers.

Gerald Brazier
Call to Action-Rio Grande Valley