Abandoned Altars

I’ve rarely watched Fox’s “Bones” mystery series for more than a few minutes. But zipping through last night, I noticed it seemed to involve clergy abuse, so I stayed. And I was utterly appalled by the way it turned out.

The main plot woven in among all the silly on-going themes seemed to be about a murdered priest found in a graveyard. There were several dead priests, actually, and the cemetery business was some unrelated graverobbing that was quickly solved. Turns out, though, that one had been rumored to be a pedophile, despite the pretty altar boy’s strenuous claims that their personal interest in him was purely platonic though he knew everyone thought otherwise. The lab showed that the croaked clerics had been poisoned, and one bludgeoned with a chalice for good measure also (!).

Two padres remained, the hunky young wrestling coach whom suspicions immediately focused on, and the gruff old pastor who was being replaced. They showed the young guy grappling with boys in class and revealed he was being poisoned also. Aha! So suspicion falls on the pastor as the killer. He’s just about to take the rap when one of the heroes figure it out.

So they summon the mousy church secretary into the police interrogation room where the pastor’s waiting to set her up. She is easily persuaded to spill the beans: how she was sure they were all bad priests and didn’t the old guy want her to snuff them? He denies it, and repeats that there was no evidence against them. She asks for forgiveness. He gruffly says, “It isn’t that kind of confession,” and leaves. She’s busted by the detectives who’ve watched the whole thing. The end.

Now, aside from the gross misuse of the Sacrament of Reconciliation here, the subtext is very clear and disturbing. The underlying message is that lay reformers are overzealous, in a rush to judgment against good priests on the basis of unfounded rumors that is murdering the Church, and will not be forgiven.

Voices of the Faithful take note!