I dissent, Kathryn. What Lauryn Hill did was rude, but prophets don’t stand on

protocol. I’m thrilled she went right to the heart of our Church and said

what she did. The AFP report quotes her as having told the cardinals and invited guests: “Holy God has

witnessed the corruption of your leadership, of the exploitation and abuses

which are the minimum that can be said for the clergy.” She also called on

the hierarchy to “repent.”

Good for her. It’s a shame it takes a non-Catholic to show that kind of

courageous witness to the hierarchy, which has so grievously failed Catholic

children and their families in the sex-abuse scandal. I think the reaction

of Bishop Rino Fisichella was very telling. He called Hill’s speech, “a rash

outburst. An uneducated act showing a lack of respect for the place she was

a guest and for those who invited her.” Well, la-dee-da, how

unrefined of Hill! The thing for the bishop to have said was, “It’s

sad that Miss Hill chose a Christmas concert to express her opinion on this

matter, which is out of place at this kind of event. But this is part of the

penance we in the Catholic hierarchy must perform, and we must accept her

call to repentance — not because an American pop singer tells us to, but

because God calls us to.”