I, like most human beings, was shocked and appalled at the priest abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. While I know pedophilia is in no way related exclusively to the Church, celibacy, or any such thing, I also know that the unique structure of the Church, and the tendency of bureaucratic CYA as a matter of policy, made the Church a lightening rod for attention. This was the Catholic Church after all. And it did appear that the cover up was more than just a few rogue bishops. It showed an ineptitude and structural rot that still doesn't appear to have been properly addressed, IMHO.
Nonetheless, it isn't difficult to see that much of the ire and outrage that was just and good quickly got swallowed up by people who were more interested in advancing agendas, building upon anti-Catholic bigotry, or just making a buck. After all, it isn't like abuse only happens in the Catholic Church, despite Hollywood and Media portrayals. Just look at the public education systems.
Many ask why, if the school system is a greater source of sexual abuse, we've not heard any more about it than we have. Several reasons. Like Bill Maher said, when a hot, buxom blond makes it with a fourteen year old, that's not rape. That's luck. I wonder if he thinks the same about a handsome priest and a fourteen year old? Plus, of course, the education system is heavily into advancing progressive values, a task shared by the media that is never quick to torpedo its allies in the cause.
But most of all, because lawyers haven't found a way to cash in on the huge treasure chests of public school systems yet. The Catholic Church was a giant trove just waiting to be plundered. Not so the public school systems. But if there should be a way to cash in, expect lawyers at least to be leading the charge against yet one more evil and vile institution. Just like all the other evil and vial institutions that lawsuits expose.
The biggest obstacle to solving the problems in the Church has been those who are exploiting the abuse scandal for their own purposes. If they were removed, we might be able to fix the problems easier. As it is, most of the legal attacks have hurt innocent people, not the ones who were guilty.
ReplyDeletecover up is a lie. nothing in this bullshit scandal was illegal. employers are not required to report employees illegal activities to the police. this 'cover up' by the bishops was totally legal.
ReplyDeletethe media has clearly had an agenda of wanting people to believe that an illegal cover up took place.
plus that priest sexually assault people at a higher rate than most men.
plus that the sex abuse scandal was a scandal of pedophilia when almost all of it involved teenagers and pedophilia is the act of sex with pre-pubescent kids
plus the idea of moving pedophiles from parish to parish when the priest was actually sent to rehab and when signed off by a doctor put back into ministry is another reason the media is horrible. the average priest is only in one church for three years i believe before being moved. so saying they were moved as a cover up is a lie by the media as they would have been moved around all over the place anyway.
Welcome Matthew. I'm the first to say there is far more to the scandal than meets the eye. But there can be no doubt that if the Church did anything wrong, it certainly handled the news of the scandal improperly. There are many lies, half-truths, and no-truths told about this. But in the end, the Church dropped the ball, IMHO, by first being influenced by the 'how to handle crimes' of the day, c. 1960s and 1970s, and then being slow to catch the changes in society when it came to how to handle such things.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that's my take. Thanks for dropping by, and hope to hear from you soon.