There is an old law of politics that says you should keep your mouth shut when the other side is self-destructing, and for that reason I’ve said nothing about the Pennsylvania grand jury report which found that 300-some priests sexually abused more than 1000-children over the course of decades, and that the church systematically covered it up.
Some random thoughts, in no particular order.
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The Catholic Church’s sex abuse problem has been front page news for almost 2-decades, and has been whispered about for centuries. Recall that St. Peter Damian wrote The Book of Gomorrah w-a-a-a-y back in the 11th-century. (Nominally, Damian’s work is a protest against homosexuality among priests, but documents extensive and non-consensual pederasty.)
Consequently, I’m torn between pity for those whose infantile view of reality was rocked by the report — and contempt. How is it even possible that anybody, anywhere, is surprised?
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Forget about the church reforming itself; that won’t happen. The church couldn’t even stop burning heretics at the stake by itself.
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The 1st-century church was a cult, and the New Testament is the literature of a cult — and it sanctions the cover-ups; it is Christian to protect the church first, and to worry about the children later. (Just as, according to Albert the Pious, it is Christian to put the church first and give your family the leftovers.)
This is repellent and deserves only contempt – but you simply cannot deny the Christian teaching about these matters.
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Honor the plain, unambiguous intent of the Founders and take away the privileged tax status that churches enjoy.
Today, all of us subsidize the drafty empty churches; the swift transfers to another parish or, even, country; the pious mewlings about prayers for the victims. All of those things are made possible by money surreptitiously taken from your pocket.
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The Godly folk are not ‘better’ people, and the Catholic Church ought to be hit with some RICO charges.