It is stunning how decisively Catholic Church officials can respond when they finally encounter something that offends them.

A group of high school students from Covington, Kentucky visiting D.C. to participate in the annual anti-abortion March for Life were assailed with racist, homophobic taunts from a small group of African-Americans who referred to themselves as Black Hebrew Israelites.  Shouts of "crackers, racists, faggots, incest kids" – no problem.

A group of adults professing to advance Native American heritage decided to get in on the fun by then forcefully pushing into the group of teenagers who were simply waiting for the arrival of buses.  Career malcontent Nathan Phillips advanced toward one student wearing a Make America Great Again cap and pounded on a tom-tom within inches of the youngster's nose.  The boy stood quietly until the group was directed to buses for their return trip to northern Kentucky.  In this case, the teenagers acted much more responsibly that the immature "grownups" who confronted them.  Not surprisingly, the press quickly assigned total blame to the pro-life kids without a word of rebuke for those who initiated the standoff. 

According to the reliably incorrect CNN report, Phillips, a tribe "elder," was simply offering a "healing prayer when the school teens got into a verbal altercation with a group of African American youths who had been preaching about the bible nearby."  View the entire video of the events and judge for yourself how accurate this account is. 

But even the Washington press corps could not falsely attack the innocent Catholic teens as quickly as did Bishop Roger Joseph Foys back in their own diocese of Covington. 

The diocese immediately issued a statement.  "We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and Native Americans in general, Jan. 18, after the March for Life, in Washington, D.C."

We extend our deepest apologies to Mr. Phillips. This behaviour (sic) is opposed to the Church's teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person.  The matter is being investigated and we will take appropriate action, up to and including expulsion.

Under normal circumstances, an investigation should precede the condemnation, but when political correctness is required, fair play usually takes a shiv in the back.  Does the good bishop really think he has treated his own students properly when innumerable videos prove their innocence?

Exactly what are these Church's teachings on the dignity and respect of the human person – especially in the bishop's diocese?  Foys was assigned to Covington in 2002 with the task of addressing a class-action lawsuit involving the sexual abuse of minors by at least 80 diocese employees, including priests, dating back to at least 1948.  The bishop eventually spent $120 million (the sale of $40 million of church property that had been provided by parishioners and $80 million from an insurance company) to resolve the matter.      

For more than half a century, the Diocese of Covington did nothing to expose or actively concealed what Foys later described as "shameful, despicable deeds," but he prayed that spending millions of dollars of someone else's money would "bring some measure of comfort and healing to victims and their loved ones."

So how about these boys and their families?  Now that the diocese has already condemned them and threatened them with expulsion without any investigation or discussion, what does the pastoral church of Covington have in store for them?

The lunacy of some protesters who incessantly roam the streets of our national capital and the professional malfeasants of the national press are fully predictable.  Will Bishop Foys finally stand up for justice by apologizing to these young people he has wronged?