@Jazzy
@MoreCoffee
Some of my fallible thoughts.....
1. SADLY, TRAGICALLY, child abuse (including sexual abuse) has likely been going on for thousands of years. In homes, schools, churches, clubs... in the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, in Karate schools, in boxing schools.... wherever children are in the presence of monsters. YES, it happened in some Catholic settings (churches, schools, youth organizations). It also happened in some Protestant settings. Children exist. Monsters exist. Horrible! Terrible! Disgusting! Sinful!
2. It seems to ME that criminals often try to hide and cover up their sin and crimes. Nothin' new about that.
3. Whenever children are in the presence of adults, it's good to have clear and enforced policies that discourage these monstrous acts on innocent boys and girls. I think that as a result of these cases that so publicly came to light some years ago, virtually all organizations have taken a very close look at those policies and enforcement - and found them inadequacy. Fortunately, improvements have been made. These improvements won't eliminate the problem but HOPEFULLY they will decrease them.
4. The problem in many organizations (including churches) is that once supervisors became aware of the problem, they chose to "handle it in house." In some cases (secular organizations), this simply was to avoid bad press but there was (generally) a desire to handle it. In other cases (some churches and Christian organizations) there's the view of confessional confidentiality which made this .. difficult. I think there has been the universal conclusion that this was mishandled in some cases, that adequate protection of the innocent was not made; indeed, in some cases, actually enabled the monster and disgusting sin, and for the sinner to evade the civil crime(s) they committed. I suspect this was done PARTLY to evade bad press ("don't wash your dirty laundry in public") and bad witness on the Gospel, but I suspect most of the time, it was just a desire to honor the confessional and handle this "in house." Several churches got CLOBBERED by the courts for this, and rightly so. In the Catholic diocese here, tens of millions of dollars were awarded to victims, and rightly so. It seems to me.... while the charge of "too little, too late" can be leveled at many dioceses of the Catholic Church, I think there has been some solid attempts to repent AND to ensure that steps have been taken to make this monstrous sin to be less in the future. WHEN and HOW the Pope came to know about these mishandlings, I'm not sure can be clearly documented. But I think it has been made clear no Pope has participated in the mishandling - although they MAY have known about things that they didn't correct (sin of omission).
5. I think the time has past for the throwing of stones. Let's LEARN from this... and like the organizations involved, focus on exactly WHAT we will do to make it more difficult for monsters to do this... and more likely it will be properly handled when it tragically does.
A blessed Advent to all...
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