[Avery Cardinal Dulles, a theologian at Fordham University in New York and one of the foremost authorities on Catholic church history,] who was elevated to cardinal last year and shares many of the pope's conservative philosophies on church teachings, said the scandal is an American media creation that does not rise to the level of historical church crises such as the Gregorian revolution in the 12th century or the Protestant reformation of the 16th century. ``I don't think this is anything of comparable proportions,'' he said. ``I don't think there's any great crisis in the U.S . . . It's really practically no news. To the extent it's a crisis, it's created by the news media. I suppose every individual case is terrible but it is not something peculiar to the Catholic church.''As much as I admire Cardinal Dulles, I concur with Stephen Pope. If Dulles is any indication, the Vatican is really out of touch with the severity of the problem.[Stephen J. Pope, chairman of the theology department at Boston College,] called Dulles' observation ``stunning'' and said it could reflect John Paul's feelings, given the two share similar views. ``That is profoundly out of touch with what ordinary Catholics are thinking,'' said Pope. ``There's a very deep emotional level of anger and depression. If that's the way the Vatican is thinking, there's a very big problem.''
I don't have as much admiration for him. If he was worth his weight, he would bring to light the huge homosexual problems he's got right there at Fordham. He should start by exposing Paul Halsal; who's a resident fruitcake and super-radical gay activist prof. But I don't think Dulles is up to it.