SCOTLAND
Daily Record
JOAN BURNIE puts forwards the view the Catholic Church should put the same effort into purifying its own ranks that it does chasing abortion issues.
ABORTION is seldom an easy decision. There are few women who treat it lightly and maybe those who do aren’t those most fit to receive a Mother’s Day card.
But the recent intemperate, strident remarks from Bishop Joseph Devine, in which he linked abortion to the Nazi death camps, was a rant too far.
Such comparisons not only belittle the full, foul horror of the Holocaust itself but do nothing to encourage a civilised debate. …
Coincidentally, on the same day as the bishop was making his comments, the Catholic Church in Victoria, Australia, was becoming yet another place to concede that many children, possibly thousands, could have been abused by their priests.
If the church’s hierarchy had put one 10th of the zeal into exposing the paedophiles within their midst, as they do campaigning and preaching against matters of personal conscience, such as abortion and gay marriage, they could have rooted out this evil much earlier than they did.
They denied and delayed, while playing pass the parcel with priests who were an evident danger to children.
So I put it to the bishop – had you and other princes of the church acted quicker, there might not be so many abused and damaged adults across the world who wish they had never been born because of the abuse they suffered.
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