Evil Incarnate

Caldonian Record
September 6, 2019

https://www.caledonianrecord.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-evil-incarnate/article_c8de4a85-d85b-5078-96b2-bfcdc0ea2551.html

In the ongoing fallout from the worldwide Catholic sex abuse scandals, the Vermont and New Hampshire Diocese recently published reports of “credibly accused” priests who preyed on victims in the two states.

In Vermont, 18 of the 40 accused predators roamed the Northeast Kingdom. North Country parishioners endured 29 of 71 accused pedophiles.

“This is meant as an act of ownership and accountability,” New Hampshire Bishop Peter Libasci said upon publication of the lists. “It is my hope that by making this information available, we are holding ourselves accountable to the evils of the past.”

To which we say… to hell with that.

We watched the Pope contextualize the abuse during this year’s Vatican conference and were quickly reminded that, had it not been for the Boston Globe, the church would willingly have maintained its rampant and seemingly timeless tradition of raping children and covering it up.

As the 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury concluded, the Church invented a “playbook for concealing the truth…

“They protected their institution at all costs,” the report points out. “The church showed a complete disdain for victims.”

We’re well aware of all the good the Church has done in the world - the hospitals, and schools, and charity. And we feel deep sympathy for all the world’s innocent, well-meaning and faithful parishioners.

But the bottom line is this: If middle management at your organization is rife with child rapists, and upper management immemorially protects these rapists so as to perpetuate their reign of terror, then yours is a criminal organization. As far as we’re concerned, the Catholic Church is a centuries-old child sex-trafficking enterprise masquerading under the false cloak of faith.

These horrifying and endless stories of systemic abuse, committed with near-impunity by those purporting to act in the name of God, are arguably the darkest stain on the history of humankind.