I haven’t seen any diaries about the grand jury report released yesterday about the decades-long sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania. No one should should be surprised by reports of child rape by priests — it’s a weekly occurrence. But the scale of the crime and its cover-up by the church hierarchy was shocking: over 1000 documented case of sexual abuse — including child rape = by 300 priests. And there were likely thousands more that went unreported. And that’s just in one state. We know by the terrific investigative reporting by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team that the scope of abuse/coverup in Massachusetts was similar, if not even worse.
The Washington Post has the correct analysis. The Catholic Church — from the top-down — is a criminal enterprise:
The conspiracy — as in Boston and practically every major city in the United States and many overseas — involved bishops, archbishops and even cardinals. Among those named in the report is Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, archbishop of Washington who was bishop of Pittsburgh for 18 years, until 2006. Mr. Wuerl vowed zero tolerance for predator priests following the Boston Globe’s revelations, in 2002, of widespread abuse and coverups. Yet the Pennsylvania report documents several cases in which Mr. Wuerl seems more interested in protecting than in fully exposing clergymen who had molested children.
Even as apologists for the Vatican and the clergy continue peddling the myth that the Catholic Church’s pedophile scandals simply reflect society’s problems, the weight of evidence is overwhelming proof to the contrary. Thousands of American priests weaponized faith, as Mr. Shapiro said, taking advantage of their status and access to children to prey on them. They left uncountable thousands of victims in their wake.
Pope Francis has failed miserably in addressing this issue. I don’t care if he seems like a nice guy who wants to emphasize the teachings of Jesus. There is something dark and sick in Church doctrine that allows for these horrible crimes against innocent children to go on — and on.