ALLENTOWN (PA)
Morning Call
August 8, 2018
By Paul Muschick
Pope Francis made headlines last week by saying the Catholic Church would work to abolish the death penalty globally. The church should focus on cleaning up its own house before preaching to others how they should dish out punishment.
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But I thought about it again last weekend, after seeing the latest turn in the church’s sex abuse scandal in Pennsylvania. And I concluded the church isn’t in a position to be telling others how to apply justice.
A court filing alleged Pennsylvania church leaders went all out to keep allegations of clergy sexual abuse against children from being investigated by law enforcement authorities or becoming public.
That wasn’t a surprise, either. It still was sickening to see.
“The main thing was not to help children, but to avoid ‘scandal,’’’ the court filing quoted the unreleased grand jury report as saying.
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