30 September 2009

Hey others abuse kids too

Oh really, as true as it may be, you do have to wonder at the wisdom of Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, reported as saying that child abuse is common in other churches too. He claims 1.5-5% of clergy are involved in child abuse, which even if conservative is disgraceful.

However, there is no penance in being a party to covering up crimes to finger point "them too".

Of course, protestant churches and preachers of other religions abuse children too. Who has ever denied this? This also gets exposed and continues to be a cause of concern, but this reminds of the Albanian communist politician who on Australian TV said "every country has political prisoners" to excuse the then Stalinist state's repression of dissent.

Until the Vatican demands that all those who have committed atrocities towards children stand up and give themselves up to the authorities, and excommunicates the guilty, it can hardly start pointing fingers at others. Its own house absolutely reeks.

1 comment:

ZenTiger said...

The full story started with the latest string of unsubstantiated accusations, and this report dwells on a small aspect of the response.

This misreporting and the initial accusations continue to reflect an inherent bias from people still imagining that nothing has changed in the last 40 years within the Catholic Church.

Things have changed. And in spite of what was said, apologies have been made, and millions of dollars of compensation have been made. The Catholic Church is perhaps one of the organisations that have done more than any other in this regard.

If this person has genuine complaints, he needs to lay these complaints (complete with a victim to interview) with the secular authorities who are obliged to investigate.