I keep thinking for the past couple of decades that sooner or later the outrageous assaults on intellectual integrity and common sense will end, and the American people will wake up, look around, have one royal WTF moment, and after shaking themselves and muttering ‘what was I thinking’, get this nation back on track.
Well, the Catholic Church hierarchy and PR machine have pretty much assured I that won’t be having that moment right now.
I cannot begin to conceive where the Church found someone so totally lacking in integrity and self-respect that they could stand in front of the cameras and mouth the repulsive nonsense the Church is trying to push now to excuse the rampant pedophilia and sexual abuse by priests of their young parishioners for the past half a century.
Blame the flower children. That seems to be the chief conclusion of a new report about the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal. The study, undertaken by John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the request of America’s Catholic bishops, links the spike in child abuse by priests in the 1960s and ’70s to “the importance given to young people and popular culture” — along with the emergence of the feminist movement, a “singles culture” and a growing acceptance of homosexuality. It also cites crime, drugs, an increase in premarital sexual behavior and divorce.
The problem with this conclusion isn’t that it absolves molesting priests of responsibility. Even the study’s authors wouldn’t go that far. Rather, the flaw with the theory is that it’s unsupported by any data or evidence. It thus detracts from the report’s other findings, which are based on empirical research. Indeed, aside from its implausible indictment of the ’60s counterculture, the report is an enlightening analysis of an abominable chapter in the Roman Catholic Church’s history.
This is beyond pathetic.
The Catholic Church needs to do the World and its people a favor, and just declare itself financially as well as morally bankrupt, and go out of business.
