Every day it seems there are more examples uncovered of Catholic priests and bishops committing sexual crimes.  Last year we had the case of the bishop surfing for child pornography (Bishop Lahey) on the Internet and reports of many priests in Ireland (Report on Ireland) being guilty of abuse of boys in their care.  Over the last few weeks there have been many cases of abuse in schools in Germany (report) and now there is a report of a gay prostitution ring involving Vatican VIPs.  Yesterday, there were reports that  Dutch Catholics are coming forward to report abuse (report). And there have been many cases in earlier years in Canada, US, Australia and other countries.  The defence by Catholics is that there are no more cases than occurs in the rest of the population.  If that's the case, then how can priests pretend to be an authority on morality?  And since there are so many sex crimes, how can they pretend that celibacy is a good idea?

Only the Catholic Church insists on celibacy and even then it makes some exceptions.  It is not considered a dogma but merely a canon or ruling of the Church.  So it can be changed at any time by decree of the pope.  You'd think by now he'd want to do something concrete about all the problems.

Another problem, at least according to official Catholic teaching, is that the "sacrament of confession" supposedly allows immediate forgiveness of any sin with a nominal penance.  This means that any sin is OK as long as you don't die before confessing.   So Catholics can do anything and not go to hell!  Such a deal!

The initial reaction to all these priestly crimes was to cover them up - to not let anyone know and certainly not to allow legal prosecution if possible.  This happened for centuries and ignored the damage done to victims - if the bishops and popes  were trying to avoid scandal, they created a bigger one in its place.  Now the Pope thinks that by exhortations to bishops and offering sympathetic words he can solve the problem.  But he has a management problem.  Maybe he should go ask one of his "faithful" who runs a big company and ask for advice.    I would suggest to start:  1) rescind celibacy, 2) assume no individuals can be trusted so allow no situations where minors are alone with priests etc  and  3) stop pretending you can "forgive sins" through confession - that improves the motivation.

Then they need to get the word out - no pedophiles need apply.  Allowing gays would be the next step - but that's for another article!

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