BALTIMORE (MD)
About.com
By Austin Cline, About.com Guide
December 4, 2012
In Baltimore, Maryland, a teacher named John Joseph Merzbacher apparently not only raped pre-teen students, but did so in front of at least one nun who did nothing to help. This occurred in the 1970s but it wasn’t reported until the 1990s and it’s only hitting the public media now.
This is meaningful because it involves church officials who weren’t priests. Granted, the nuns themselves weren’t raping children (isn’t it disturbing that this has to be mentioned?), but at least one was (according to the reports) facilitating and covering up the rape of children.
This indicates that the problem with Catholic priests molesting and raping children while bishops facilitated it and covered it up isn’t a problem that can be traced solely to something in the Catholic priesthood. Something about the priesthood may have played a role, but it can’t be the only issue. Something else in the nature of Catholic Church power and institutional structures must be playing an important role as well.
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