UNITED STATES
Pocono Record
March 16, 2014
“When you go in through those doors, it is supposed to be a spiritual, wholesome place. .. You don’t know who you’re listening to anymore … It’s like using the word of God for other purposes.” — Roman Catholic Jose Soto, 44, talking to Fox News in Arecito, Puerto Rico
Pope Francis and the American Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently expressed puzzlement as to why the Roman Catholic Church has been singled out by ongoing criticism over child sex abuse.
The pope told an Italian newspaper that the Catholic Church “is perhaps the only public institution that has moved with transparency and responsibility” to ferret out abusers and address the problem. “No one has done more,” the pope said, “and yet the church is the only one to have been attacked.” Later on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” the cardinal said he cheered the pope’s words. Then, claiming to speak for lay Catholics, he said Catholics, too, wonder why the church is being picked on when in recent years it’s been “an example of what to do.”
Surely these two highly educated, distinguished scholars and leaders of the Catholic faith understand all too well why the church continues to be singled out for criticism. Yes, child sexual abuse occurs across society, but when it’s discovered, the perpetrators are prosecuted. That wasn’t true for many, many decades in the Catholic Church, as reports of long-ago, ignored child sex abuse show
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