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  Updating the Priest Abuse Scandal

By Bill Tammeus
Bill's 'Faith Matters' Weblog
March 12, 2008

http://billtammeus.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/march-12-2008.html

Each of the last several years, in response to the Catholic priest child abuse scandal, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a report that details the status of the scandal and the effectiveness of the church's response.

The scandal itself was horrendous. For decade after decade, priests got away with abusing innocent children and bishops sometimes protected them by simply moving them from one position to another without fixing the problem or removing the priest from the priesthood.



The church's response has ranged from excellent to poor, depending on the circumstances and the area being considered. But these annual reports certainly keep the issue alive and provide members of the church enough data at least to ask more questions and to pressure local congregations, church leaders and others to stay on top of this.

For one thing, these reports get some press coverage. Click here, for instance, for an Associated Press report about the most recent report. And because the reports are easily available to everyone online, Catholics don't have much excuse for ignorance at least about what the bishops are reporting. For the 2007 report, issued a few days ago, click here.

Beyond that, advocacy groups who seek to represent abuse victims read these reports and respond to them quickly, pointing out where the bishops still are failing. For instance, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests last week issued this statement, noting the failure of two large dioceses to live up to the promises made when the abuse scandal broke.

I've said this before but it bears repeating. As bad as the scandal was in the Catholic church, it's not the only religious organization where this kind of behavior has occurred or is happening even now. And it's up to the members of each faith community to find out whether their groups have policies in place that would protect children and educate everyone on how best to deal with all this.

If we can't do our best to try to protect children, what good are we?

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P.S.: A Catholic church in Azerbaijan that had been closed for 70 years has just been reopened. Here and there religious freedom makes a little progress.

 
 

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