Last month the Roman church failed again to come clean on child sexual abuse at what was hailed as a landmark meeting in Rome. In some catholic theology raping children is viewed as less sinful than having sex with a woman with bizarre paradoxes at the heart of this belief system (1). Twenty years ago when I started researching this horrendous phenomenon I contacted a Jesuit who argued the child sexual abuse scandal in the catholic church was caused by the media, the police, and anti-catholic bigotry. The current pope is still stating this, arguing last month that abuse in his kingdom is no greater than elsewhere, the real problem is inside the family, and “the media” and “journalistic practices” are to blame (2.). Blaming Satan is easy. The Roman church is obviously a place paedophiles are formed, protected and given access to children, with those protecting abusers promoted. We are mostly only aware of the abuse in the Western world and Australia, so is this still the tip of the iceberg (3.)? Despite denying a cover up under cross-examination Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the most senior Catholic cleric in England and Wales failed to respond to the current UK independent inquiry into child sexual abuse request for information (4.). This faith that claims to possess “the truth” will eternally be unable to fully face its prolific role in the facilitation of abuse, selecting to protect itself rather than children and in doing so undermining what it supposedly stands for.
1.
Jason Lee, Celebrity, Pedophilia and Ideology in American Culture (New York: Cambria, 2009), p. 41.
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Jason Lee 