New York City, N.Y., Sep 14, 2018 / 10:40 am
Cardinal Timothy Dolan has spoken about how the extended sexual abuse scandals facing the Church have taken a personal toll on him. The Archbishop of New York said that his own mother is "embarrassed to be Catholic."
Dolan made the comments to CNN's Christiane Amanpour in a Sept. 13 interview. He said that his mother, who lives in an assisted-living home, told him that people knew her son was a priest and that she was ashamed of the scandals.
"If you don't think that's wrenching, I tell you, it's awful. This summer has been anything but a church picnic for us. It's been a disaster--one crisis after another," he said.
Dolan also said that, while scandals involving sexual abuse among the clergy were "not new," he had listened to many survivors face-to-face throughout the years and that the damage done to them and to the Church was terrible.