Thursday, April 17, 2008

Abuse victims warily consider Pope's words

The New York Times has an article giving perspectives on Pope Benedict's visit from some sexual abuse survivors.

Please remember that this isn't only about the Catholic Church. We hear the most about them because they are by far the largest Christian denomination - there's more Roman Catholics than all Protestants combined, I think. And I've heard similar criticisms leveled at, say, the Southern Baptist Convention. Sexual abuse has taken place in every denomination. And it will, unfortunately, continue to take place. That said, churches that are slow to admit there's a problem, will have a bigger problem. To the extent that the Catholic Church has been disproportionately slow to react to sex abuse, then this is about the Catholic Church.

Edit: The Episcopal Church, whose organizational structure is relatively democratic and transparent, also had a case where a bishop concealed sexual abuse perpetrated by his brother, a priest.

No comments: