18 years after the Boston revelations:


"Catholic Church Covered Up Child Sex Abuse in Pennsylvania for Decades, Grand Jury Says"


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/us/catholic-church-sex-abuse-pennsylvania.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Very discouraging. Hopefully the church will put structures and procedures in place to address child sexual abuse in the future. But legislators will have to do their bit as well.

NPR's "All Things Considered," had two interviews on this topic today that are both enlightening and disturbing.

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/636855561/report-reveals-widespread-sexual-abuse-by-over-300-priests-in-pa
and
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/14/638629435/sex-abuse-problems-persist-inside-the-roman-catholic-church

One of the most disturbing aspects of this comes from the first story where a local reporter says at the end of her interview that many state legislative officials (politicians) do not want to rewrite the law to allow for out of statute of limitations cases on this issue to be heard for fear that it would bankrupt the Roman Catholic church. Excuse me? If the church as an organization was looking the other way while priests were engaging in this kind of behavior, then maybe it should go belly up! Then again, I suppose that this is how Utah lawmakers might react if major lawsuits of this sort were brought against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

With regard to the second interview, Tom Gelton's statement at the end about the Catholic church's reluctance to accept change puts this whole matter in a light that maybe many true believers do not wish to view it in.

IMO, the problem is that they see all this in terms of sin. Their whole institution is built around the concept of sin and forgiveness. They (and every other Christian group) needs to just give up on the idea of sin and recognize that it is a crime.

slskipper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They
> (and every other Christian group) needs to just
> give up on the idea of sin and recognize that it
> is a crime.

Crime is even less forceful for these people like Catholic History attests to.

What has been discounting in Catholicism is the concept of sin (both venal and mortal) since the confession was introduced in Ireland hundreds of years ago followed up by indulgences.

I'm not religious, but if their own concept of sin (which is flawed from the start thinking they are born in it) can't hold much holy water then the concept of crimes against people has even less water weight in my opinion.

All crime is sinful.
Not all sins are crimes.
This is both.

Guessing security will be increased at the granite vault while papers shredders are working hot.