IRELAND
Irish Examiner
Tarring all Catholic religious with sex abuse brush a horrible injustice
By Victoria White
CATHOLIC priests are no more likely to abuse minors than men of any other profession. They are no more likely to abuse minors than priests of any other denomination. They are slightly less likely to abuse minors than teachers.
That’s what the international research says, including the John Jay Institute’s 2004 report to the American Catholic bishops.
Would you ever shut up, you’re saying. Don’t you realise that kicking old Catholic priests in the dentures is the easiest way for a journalist to get Facebook “likes” these days? Don’t you realise you’re going to get a slew of comments telling you the little-known fact that the Catholic Church had a policy of raping children? I hate the crime of child abuse and I hate those who abuse minors.
I am not a Catholic. The only reason I am writing this article is because I cannot stand seeing such injustice done to any group in society as is being done to Catholic religious. Few other groups in our society are the targets of such consistent slander. Maybe they should take a leaf out of the Travellers’ book and look for status as an “ethnic minority.”
The fifth and largest tranche of reviews of Catholic institutions in Ireland by the National Board for Safeguarding Trust was published this week and are available on www.safeguarding.ie. Though the board still found structural weaknesses, particularly in some missionary congregations, the reports on the dioceses were positive to the point of glowing.
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