Cardinal George got a kindly reception at abuse-plagued St. Agatha Church yesterday but couldn’t keep his sharp, logical tongue in check anyhow.

Asked as he left the friendly St. Agatha confines what he thought of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) protesting his imminent election as president of the U.S. bishops conference, he said, “I don’t think they have any credibility on that issue.”

A low blow?  Or badly aimed, as gun shot at one’s foot by the church leader who has nothing to say about his priest’s felonious sexual assault on children in his care but to call it “tragedy.”

Isn’t tragedy what you can’t avoid?  The horrors visited by the gods, or for us Christians, God, willy-nilly?  The Greeks — Sophocles and the like, not restaurant-owners coast to coast — made an excess of a good thing.  Your chief virtue did you in, you got a big head, fell victim to hubris, and there you were, caught in disaster not entirely of your making.

Not so.  Today, even for learned prelates, a tragedy is something clearly bad though only vaguely to be blamed on anyone.  So guns kill people, not people, the shot not the shooter, the SUV not the driver. 

Likewise, who’s to blame for the dreadful incidents at St. Agatha?  “We have tried to figure out where were the betrayals, what went wrong,” the cardinal told the eminently forgiving parishioners, gathered for him to install the new man as pastor.

Isn’t there something plaintive about that?  We have tried.  And trying is next to godliness, which robs protesting SNAP of its credibility, does it not?  Is there hubris in that? 

Moreover, there may be more to this than has met the eye so far, said George:

“A lot of that is still a story that is not truly told, for various reasons,” George said. “Sometimes things don’t become really clear for many years, and sometimes, perhaps, not until Christ returns.”

Whoa.  Not truly equals falsely, I think.  Various reasons?  Uh-oh.  Someone’s been lying, though this churchman would prefer not to use the word.  And why?  We don’t know, and may never know until the Second Coming.

Is that nonsense, or what?  We do know that no one has been penalized for letting the offender not only pass but thrive under George — who made him a vicariate dean, for gosh sakes, weeks before his arrest.  In fact, nothing has slowed the promotion machine, as Sun-Times pointed out months ago:

Top leaders in the Archdiocese of Chicago responsible for complaints about predatory priests kept their positions or rose in the church in the aftermath of the Rev. Daniel McCormack’s 2006 arrest, according to archdiocesan reports and interviews. Vicar General George Rassas was elevated to auxiliary bishop. Chancellor Jimmy Lago was named the primary point person on child abuse cases. Leaders from the offices of Vicar for Priests to Protection of Children and Youth stayed in key positions,

the paper had last July — scroll down and pay $2.95 to see whole article.  Must we wait for Jesus in a cloud of glory to know what all that’s about? 

Meanwhile, what would it be like to hear from George’s lips “disgusting” about the abuser’s behavior?  Can he say he feels “lousy” about it?  He should at least try.  It would be quite an improvement on invoking mystery and getting snappish with SNAP.