TORONTO (CANADA)
The Toronto Star
August 16, 2018
Editorial Board
The Pennsylvania grand jury report into the sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic priests is unbearable to read.
One priest is accused of raping a 7-year-old girl in the hospital after she had her tonsils removed; another confessed to raping 15 boys as young as 7; a third bound and whipped his victim with leather straps; a fourth forced a 9-year-old boy to give him oral sex and then rinsed his mouth out with holy water to purify him; five sisters in the same family were sexually assaulted.
These monstrous acts, and many more, were committed by some 300 priests against at least 1,000 children in six Pennsylvania dioceses. The real number of abused children, the grand jury added, might be in the thousands.
The crimes were covered up for decades by church authorities, including Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the former bishop of Pittsburg, according to the grand jury report. He’s the third cardinal to be disgraced by sex abuse scandals in the last several months, including Cardinal George Pell, one of the Vatican’s highest officials, ordered to stand trial in Australia on several charges of sexual abuse.
Sex abuse scandals have been rocking the Catholic Church worldwide for decades. In most countries, including Canada, abuse has been uncovered through court proceedings, public inquiries or media investigations. The information has been pried from a church that has placed its reputation above the trauma of helpless victims. This self-serving attitude needs to change.
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