By
Detroit Free Press
April 14, 2010
http://www.freep.com/article/20100414/BLOG24/100413087/0/NEWS07/The-Popes-new-policy-on-child-molesters
The Vatican announced new guidelines on Monday in the wake of the ongoing sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. To quote the Associated Press story, the guidelines state that "bishops and clerics worldwide should report such crimes to police if they are required to by law."
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However, the new policy is a guideline, not an official Church instruction to the bishops, according to the AP. These are children we're talking about – the reporting of all crimes and all allegations should be mandatory for moral reasons, if not for legal reasons. How can an institution that has been a force for good in many ways, take such a weak approach to the most evil of all crimes, short of murder?
To further quote the AP story, "… however, the Vatican guide contains no call for 'zero tolerance' for priests who rape and molest children…" Meaning that priests who abuse children can remain in their position if they promise not to molest again? Considering the incredibly high recidivism rates for child molesters, that's a pretty big "if". The Vatican needs to adopt a global zero-tolerance policy, similar to the one practiced by the American church since 2002. And they should fire the perpetrators of this tragedy.
Speaking as someone who was raised Catholic, I know from experience that the Church has had a positive impact on the lives of millions of people. But the Church's repeated inability to properly address this ongoing travesty is flat-out inexcusable.
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