The Catholic Church and Child Abuse

The Church has weathered a lot of storms in its history and no doubt, like the British monarchy, it will weather this one as well. But what makes the current scandal so lethal is the fact that this time it does not concern the Church's attitude to society and the outside world in general, but its own behaviour within its ranks. I hope I will not be misunderstood if I say that the worst thing about this whole tragedy, almost worse than the despicable, cruel and selfish acts themselves, is the fact that the Church itself has at no time in the last thirty years or so made the slightest attempt to come to grips with this problem at its own initiative. It is almost impossible to escape the conclusion that, if the Church had anything to do with it, we would still remain blissfully unaware of the whole affair.