JAMAICA
The Gleaner
Published: Monday | May 5, 2014
Michael Abrahams
Online Columnist
One of the best-known Bible verses is Luke 18:16: “But Jesus called unto him, and said, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forgive them not: for of such is the kingdom of God’.”
But, for some reason, the Vatican, the ‘head office’ of the largest and most powerful Christian denomination, appears to have seriously misinterpreted that verse.
Child sex abuse scandals far too frequently rear their ugly heads in the Catholic Church. These incidents are by no means confined to that organisation, as child molesters can be found in probably all professions and vocations, but the hierarchy of this church has a nasty habit of protecting perpetrators and enablers, placing the interests of the church above those of the victims and their families.
Before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger played a role in systematically covering up child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. In 2001, while at the Vatican, he issued an edict to Catholic bishops all over the world recommending that rather than reporting sexual abuse to legal authorities, victims, perpetrators and witnesses be encouraged not to talk about the alleged incidents, with victims also being threatened with excommunication if they dared repeat the allegations.
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