Pedophiles, Popes, and Priests

The Vatican is such a beautiful place—opulent and medieval to be sure, but the level of artistry is overwhelmingly gorgeous.  It is such a shame that such beauty exists amidst such  scandal, and a determined lack of changing what is immoral.

It is so hard to think about this, but with the pope resigning, it is impossible not to reflect on the period of time that he resided over in the Catholic Church, so it is inevitable that the issue of priests and child abuse would come to mind.  Pope Benedict was remarkably ineffectual in healing his followers, many of whom have specifically turned away from the church.  The problem is two-fold.  Did the Catholic Church effectively deal with their problem priests?  Definitely not—and that did not improve over time.  They spent a lot of effort protecting their own to the detriment of Catholic children.  The argument has been made that the 4% of Catholic priests who are predatory child molesters represents the prevalence of that in the general population—I find that hard to believe.  It is true that about 5% of men are attracted to children, but not all of them act on that attraction, and the prevalence of attraction to children may be far higher in priest, we just do not know.  But the damning behavior of the church is that they hid their perpetrators, while continuing to give them access to children.  That is unforgivable.  Punitive damages are appropriate, and the Pope, much like a CEO, bears responsibility for his church and their crimes.

Children who are sexually abused are damaged for life.  It is not just the child who is affected—their family, friends, educators, and coworkers are all affected by child abuse.  The fact that a religious institution facilitated the ongoing abuse of children is a stain on their character.  

As a side, I think it is potentially fascinating to address the conundrum of a current Pope and a former Pope co-habiting the planet.  Unfortunately, I don’t see the Catholic Church discussing that openly, so I am likely to not learn much about it.  This is the chance for the Catholic establishment to educate non-Catholics about their religious beliefs, but I don’t see them taking the opportunity.