Last Sunday, in an article titled “New Blood: Violent Gang Life is Passed Down from Parent to Child,” the New York Daily News reported the Rev. Luis Barrios, priest associate at St. Mary’s Church, Harlem, had performed the rite of “blessing” for about 300 children as part of an initiation into the Latin Kings gang.
“It’s a street organization with the capacity to bring together young people in search of power, collective identity … [and] belonging in the society that’s rejecting them,” Fr. Barrios said, as reported by the Daily News.
How lovely. Lest there be any triumphal clucking, however, let us be mindful the deplorable practice of the Holy Catholic Church over the years administering the sacraments to known mafiosi via cowed or indifferent clergy (although, gratifyingly, she has been cracking down on it recently). That said, I will wager most of those clergy, if called to account, would not actually brag about it, nor use PoMo jargon like "bring together young people in search of power, collective identity" to justify it. They might even express remorse (especially if they're placed in the Witness Protection Program).
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