Friends, recent headlines carried the story about yet another apology issued by the ultra-rich Roman Catholic Church for child abuse and molestation. In this instance, the German Church was in hot water, even the Pope!
This follows on from apologies given by the Irish Roman Catholic Church recently for the same reasons and, before that, the American Catholic Church, etc. These apologies seem to move from country to country as some members of the Roman Catholic clergy are discovered using children as their sexual playthings.
Of course, the Catholic Church claims to be Christian and, as I recall it, Jesus was particularly fond of children but not in the way that the men and women in frocks are. He did say, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." By this, he did not mean that the children should be made to suffer the sexually sick acts of depraved priests.
It is time that the Catholics put their Church in order (which may involve changing their abnormal celibacy edicts). It is not good enough to offer cascading apologies and to give victims monetary compensation for what is vile sexual assault. It is not good enough to move offending priests from Church to Church in an effort to hide their gross behaviour. It is not good enough to send offenders or victims off to counseling.
No, it is time that any member of any clergy who offends against children is defrocked, then charged, then imprisoned. In jail, the inmates will deal out their own form of punishment to those who betray the trust of innocent children in such an appalling, unprofessional way.
I wonder how many priests, ministers, rabbis, etc, join the religious vocation because they get easy access to children in a situation where they are authority figures, where they have great power? Obviously there are many.
But no one knows how many depraved clergy there are because each Church institution tries to hide the prevalence for fear that their image will be tarnished and their flock disappear in disgust.
It’s time this sickness in religious institutions was exposed for all to see. It’s time to get rid of the deviates who hide their sickness behind robes and gowns and religious symbols. It’s time that all religious institutions were forced to clean up their act, forced to obey the law, forced to protect their flock rather than to exploit them.
People at Easter don’t want more apologies. They want action, strong action.
And they want it NOW!