From the editorial page of the Washington Post today:
"The scale of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and lay figures against children in France since 1950, detailed in a report this week by an independent commission, was a jaw-dropping reminder that revelations of the church’s complicity and coverup in the scandal have not run their course, nearly two decades after they gained wide public notice.
The French commission’s investigation, which took about two-and-a-half years, found that the victims of priests, many or most of them boys between 10 and 13 years old, numbered more than 200,000 over seven decades. Additionally, the commission concluded there were more than 100,000 additional victims, counting abuse at the hands of Catholic lay figures — nearly all of it overlooked, accepted or intentionally swept under the rug by the church hierarchy. [snip]
The world has been broadly aware of the patterns and prevalence of clergy sex abuse for nearly 20 years, in diocese after diocese, city after city, country after country. The same evil. The same criminality. The same culture of concealment by higher-ups in the church, so intent on protecting the institution and so blind to the unspeakable damage done to children." (our emphasis)
An institution as invested in shielding its corruption from public view (and from law enforcement) as the church is utterly incapable of true and lasting reform, as they've demonstrated. More fines, prison sentences and other sanctions need to be applied to punish this criminal behavior, to hell with their protestations.
(photo: The Vatican)
