Thursday, November 26, 2009
Catholic Church and Pedophilia Back in the News
The fact that we no longer find such news shocking is an indicator of how blasé we have become about the Catholic Church's shameful role in sexual abuse of children and adults. Old hat? Perhaps. But the report about how the top hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Ireland (no doubt with complicity of some government officials) refused to acknowledge and prevent 'sexual abuse of children by priests' exposes the magnitude of what went on for years.
Reuters News (in Washington Post, 11-26-09)
DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Dublin obsessively covered up widespread sexual abuse of children by priests until the mid-1990s in a misuse of the Church's central role in Irish society, an official report said on Thursday. The government-commissioned inquiry into abuse in the Irish capital from 1975 to 2004, which came six months after a similarly damning report about Church-run industrial and reform schools, also accused state officials of abetting the cover-up. The report, designed to show how church and state responded to charges of abusing children, said a representative sample of 46 priests made "abundantly clear" that it was widespread. "The Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid-1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets," the report said. "All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities," added the report, which was published by the justice ministry. Similar abuse cover-up charges have dogged the Catholic Church in other countries, especially the United States. Seven dioceses there have filed for bankruptcy protection to shield themselves from law suits by abuse victims. |
It is the same Church that is now deeply involved in political meddling in health-care reform in our country. What it opposes? Women's right to choose and giving terminally ill people the option for a dignified death!
Bright Thanksgiving morning. Listening to Blues on Bach by the Modern Jazz Quartet. The LP includes Tears from the Children based on Prelude No.8 from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier.
