UNITED STATES
Washington Times
By Wesley Pruden-The Washington Times
Thursday, February 6, 2014
The Vatican asked for it, with its stalling on what to do about pedophile priests, and putting off what the pope and his bishops know is inevitable. But neither the Roman Catholic Church nor, God knows, the United Nations, comes into the court of public opinion with what the lawyers call, with no intended irony, “clean hands.”
There’s little the Vatican can say about the scandal of its priests except to say it’s sorry, and the Roman church has done that. More than that, the Vatican has taken some steps to make sure that scandal will be resolved and certain amends made. But there’s a lot more to do, as the Vatican concedes.
The U.N.’s Committee on the Rights of the Child, based in Geneva, scorches the Vatican for its transfers of errant — and in many cases, criminal — priests from one parish to another, in some cases giving a predator a virgin field for exploiting rapacious lust.
If Pope Francis wants a few pointers on how to resolve this scandal permanently, I could offer the obvious tips. If priests must suppress the most compelling of natural human instincts, Rome will continue to recruit a large number of undesirables, men who are constitutionally unable to live up to the teachings of the church, no matter how hard they try.
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