After 2,000 years of failure, clergy sex abuse now fixed?

By Larry Quilici
Mercury News
July 21, 2019

https://bayareane.ws/2y2pvbu

Pope Francis ponders during a liturgical prayer within the third day of a landmark Vatican summit on tackling paedophilia in the clergy, on February 23, 2019 at the Vatican. Photo by Vincenzo PINTO

The July 12 article by Thomas G. Plante entitled “Effort to break sacred seal of confession misguided” (Opinion section) makes a strong case for the sacred seal of the confessional regarding confessions of child abuse.

The reality is that the Catholic Church has lost its credibility with the public on this issue.

The Church has not solved this problem in its 2,000-year history. Reference the authoritative book, “Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes: The Catholic Church’s 2,000 Year Paper Trail of Sexual Abuse” by Thomas P. Doyle and A.W. Richard Sipe.

The earliest mention of forbidden sexual behavior in the literature is from the Didache, a very early theological text which is usually dated around 70 A.D. Following 2,000 years of failure, are we to believe that the problem is now resolved for all time? How can we even believe that when our children go to confession the person on the other side of the screen is not a child abuser trolling for victims?