Catholic Church Owns Up to Sex Abuse (Finally)

The Pope finally admitted that "The greatest persecution of the church doesn't come from enemies on the outside but is born from the sins within the church," in reference to the ongoing scandal of sexual abuse by priests and nuns that has been covered up for decades by the Catholic Church.

For years, the Pope has been arguing that these priests were homosexuals (which isn't the case), that they were temporary lapses of self-control (which they weren't), or that it was all a big conspiracy by anti-Catholic forces to make the Church look bad (I won't even comment on that one) - all of which completely misses the point that it's not the pedophilia, per se, that's the problem - it's the way the Catholic Church hid the abuse, threatened the victims to keep them quiet, has withheld information from the police because their institution apparently has gaudier goals than protecting children from rape, and moved priests from congregation to congregation with the intent of covering up the abuse, but in fact only exposed more and more children to sexual predation. The most incriminating recent news is that the Pope himself, when he was a cardinal, reallocated priests and participated in the cover-up.

Finally, however, instead of blaming it all on liberals and homosexuals, the Pope seems to actually be taking responsibility for his actions and the actions of his church, and has even fired at least some of the priests involved in the abuse. Whether the Church will accept any kind of legal responsibility has yet to be seen - though I'm not holding my breath.

Of course, for atheists, the question is "Would any secular organization be able to avoid prosecution for massive child rape? If this were the public school system, say, would teachers and principals be able to avoid jail time for this sort of activity?" Obviously not, but then again, religious organizations are rarely held to the same standards as every other organization.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/11/pope-benedict-child-abuse-portugal